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The  Nation's  Navy 

OUR    SHIPS    AND 

THEIR 
ACHIEVEMENTS 


By 

Charles  Morris 


Philadelphia 

J.  B.  Lippincott  Company 

1898 


^ 


COPYRIGHT,  1898, 

BY 
J.  B.  LIPPINCOTT  COMPANY. 


PREFACE. 


THE  past  half-century  has  witnessed  a  revolution  in 
all  things  connected  with  naval  warfare.  The  war- 
ship of  the  past  has  vanished  and  another  and  stronger 
has  taken  its  place.  The  wooden  walls  of  the  ships  of 
our  ancestors  have  been  replaced  by  walls  of  steel,  the 
swelling  sail  by  the  whirling  screw,  St.  Elmo's  fire  by 
the  search-light,  the  seaman  by  the  sea-mechanic,  and 
the  reefer  of  the  sail  by  the  heaver  of  coal.  In  short,  in 
comparing  the  navy  of  the  past  with  that  of  the  pres- 
ent, we  feel  constrained  to  quote  from  Shakespeare — 
with  a  slight  difference  in  wording: 

"Nothing  of  it  that  can  fade 
But  has  suffered  a  sea  change 
Into  something  new  and  strange." 

To-day  the  navy  of  the  United  States  stands  strongly 
in  evidence.  There  is  nothing  else  which  fills  so  large 
a  space  in  the  world's  eye.  It  is  the  one  subject  about 
which  all  our  people  talk  by  day  and  dream  by  night; 
in  which  they  feel  an  abiding  interest  and  take  a  pa- 
triotic pride.  Ten  years  ago  this  was  not  the  case. 
Then  we  had  no  navy,  other  than  a  museum  of  an- 
tiquities. To-day  our  navy  is,  for  its  size,  perhaps  the 
finest  in  the  world.  Ten  years  from  to-day  it  may 
take  rank  with  the  largest  and  strongest  in  the  world. 
This  country  long  held  back  from  the  work  of  naval 
construction  that  was  actively  pursued  abroad,  but 
has  now  entered  into  it  with  all  the  American  energy 
and  inventive  ability,  and  is  giving  lessons  to,  instead 


2  PREFACE. 

of  receiving  lessons  from,  the  maritime  nations  of 
Europe. 

It  is  this  evolution  of  an  American  navy  with  which 
we  here  propose  to  deal,  to  give  its  history  in  war  and 
peace,  its  development,  its  present  condition,  with  de- 
scriptions of  its  new  vessels  and  their  equipment  for 
offence  and  defence;  in  short,  to  present  a  detailed 
account  of  the  whole  make-up  of  the  floating  engines 
of  destruction  which  now  represent  our  country  upon 
the  seas. 

It  is  a  timely  season  for  such  a  work,  now  that  a 
war  has  arisen  in  which  our  navy  plays  a  leading  part, 
and  plays  it  so  well  that  our  people  regard  with  ad- 
miration their  ships  of  war,  and  are  eager  to  know 
what  manner  of  thing  this  is  that  we  now  call  a  battle- 
ship or  a  cruiser;  what  is  meant  by  such  new  terms 
as  conning-tower,  barbette,  rapid-fire  gun,  submarine 
boat,  and  the  like;  and  the  significance  of  the  many 
matters  that  have  to  do  with  modern  naval  science  and 
engineering.  These  are  the  questions  which  this  book 
is  written  to  answer,  not  in  technical  terms,  but  in  plain 
and  simple  language,  which  all  who  read  may  under- 
stand. It  is  offered  to  the  American  public  in  the  hope 
that  it  may  fulfil  its  promise  in  this  respect. 

It  may  be  proper  to  say  concerning  its  illustrations 
that  they  have  been  selected  witH  the  purpose  of  pre- 
senting typical  examples  of  our  different  classes  of 
war-vessels,  one  of  the  best  of  each  type  being  chosen, 
and  also  of  showing  the  various  elements  of  existing 
naval  construction,  with  the  view  that  the  illustrations 
may  serve  as  a  useful  and  convenient  commentary 
upon  the  text.  Thanks  are  hereby  returned  to  the 
Scientific  American  Company  for  the  privilege  of  re- 
producing the  cut  entitled  "  The  invulnerable  floating 
fort  within  the  outer  walls  of  modern  battle-ships." 


CONTENTS. 


PART   I. 

History  of  the  American  Navy. 

** 
CHAPTER   I. 

THE   NAVY   IN  THE   REVOLUTION. 

PAGE 

The  First  Naval  Battle— Falmouth  bombarded— The 
Original  Squadron — Hoisting  the  Flag — The  First 
Cruise — Paul  Jones  at  Sea — Arnold  on  Lake  Cham- 
plain — Paul  Jones  on  the  British  Coast — The  Ranger 
and  the  Drake — Doings  of  the  Privateers — The  Bon- 
homme  Richard  and  the  Serapis — Last  Naval  Battle 
of  the  Revolution 13 

CHAPTER    II. 

NAVAL  WARS   WITH   FRANCE,   ALGIERS,    AND  TRIPOLI. 

The  Pirates  of  Algiers — A  New  Navy  built — Victories  of 
the  Constellation — The  Boston  and  the  Berceau — The 
Enterprise  and  the  Tripoli — The  Disaster  to  the  Phila- 
delphia—Decatur's  Gallant  Exploit — The  Loss  of  the 
Mastico— Final  War  with  Algiers 33 

CHAPTER   III. 

THE   SECOND   WAR  WITH    GREAT   BRITAIN. 

Depredations  on  American  Commerce — The  Chesapeake 
fired  into— The  President  and  the  Little  Belt— Declara- 
tion of  War — Naval  Powers  of  the  Combatants — The 
Constitution  and  the  Guerriere — The  Wasp  and  the 
Frolic — Capture  of  the  Macedonian,  the  Java,  and  the 
Peacock — Loss  of  the  Chesapeake  and  Death  of  Law- 

3 


4 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 


rence— Loss  of  the  Argus— Good  Fortune  of  the  Enter- 
prise—The Battle  of  Lake  Erie— The  Essex  taken— 
Exploits  of  the  Wasp— The  Battle  of  Lake  Champlain 
—Loss  of  the  President— The  Constitution  takes  the 
Cyane  and  the  Levant— The  Work  of  the  Privateers  .  42 

CHAPTER   IV. 

THE  PIRATES  AND  THE   MEXICAN   WAR. 

The  West  India  Corsairs— The  Career  of  the  Lafittes— 
.Death  of  Perry— Contests  with  the  Pirates— Porter  in 
the  Haunts  of  the  Corsairs — Fights  with  the  Malay 
Pirates— Bombardment  of  the  Canton  Forts— Tatnall 
in  the  Peiho  River — The  Koszta  Incident — Naval 
Movements  in  California — In  the  Gulf  of  Mexico — 
The  Bombardment  of  Vera  Cruz — The  Opening  of 
Japan — Naval  Expeditions  in  the  Interest  of  Science  .  59 

CHAPTER   V. 

THE   NAVY  IN  THE   CIVIL  WAR. 

Conditions  of  the  Blockade — Naval  Armament  of  the 
War— The  First  Ironclad  and  its  Effect— Character  of 
the  Monitor  and  the  Merrimac — The  Contest  at  Hamp- 
ton Roads — The  Ironclads  of  the  Mississippi  and  their 
Work — Running  the  Batteries — The  River  Fight  at 
Memphis — Farragut  in  the  Mississippi — Porter  at 
Vicksburg  and  on  the  Red  River — The  Battle  of  Mo- 
bile Bay — The  Kearsarge  and  the  Alabama — Gushing 
and  the  Albemarle — Naval  Events  before  Charleston 
—The  Assaults  on  Fort  Fisher— The  New  Ironsides — 
Exploits  of  the  Blockade-Runners 70 

CHAPTER   VI. 

RECENT  NAVAL   HISTORY. 

The  Navy  at  the  Close  of  the  War— New  Monitors 
ordered— Arctic  Exploration— The  Samoan  Hurricane 
-The  Barrundia  Incident— The  Affair  at  Valparaiso- 
Admiral  Benham  at  Rio  Janeiro — The  Sinking  of  the 


CONTENTS.  5 

PAGE 

Maine — Building  the  New  Navy — Development  of 
Plant  for  Guns  and  Armor — The  New  Ships  built  and 
ordered  .  100 


PART    II. 

Our  New  Navy. 

** 
CHAPTER   I. 

THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  IRONCLAD. 

Development  of  Steam  Navigation — Fulton's  Steam  War- 
Vessel — The  Stevens'  Experiments  and  Battery — The 
Ericsson  Propeller — The  Disaster  on  the  Princeton — 
First  Rifled  Cannon — French  Floating  Batteries  at  the 
Crimea — The  Earliest  Ironclads — Development  of  the 
Turret  Ship — Growth  of  the  New  British  Navy— Fate 
of  the  Captain— The  Citadel  Ship— First  Battle  of  Iron- 
clad Fleets— The  Barbette  System— Water-tight  Com- 
partments— Cellulose  Packing 122 

CHAPTER   II. 

THE   MODERN  WAR-SHIP. 

Recent  Titles  and  Types  of  Vessels — Disappearance  of 
the  Sail  on  War-Ships— A  Ship's  Tonnage— The  Prob- 
lem of  Displacement— The  Battle-Ship— The  Monitor 
— The  Cruiser — The  Armored  Ram — The  Torpedo- 
Boat  and  Destroyer — Modern  Naval  Guns — Life  on  a 
War-Ship 141 

CHAPTER   III. 

THE   NEW  AMERICAN   MONITORS. 

The  Monitor  Type  Abroad— The  Amphitrite— Use  of  the 
Conning-Tower — The  Monadnock  and  the  Terror — 
Compressed  Air  Motive  System  in  the  Terror — Turret 
Moving,  Loading,  and  Steering — The  Miantonomoh — 
The  Puritan— The  Monterey— Utility  of  the  Monitors 
— New  Monitors  ordered 158 


6  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   IV. 

BATTLE-SHIPS   OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

PAGE 

Position  and  Character  of  the  Battle-Ship— Its  Arma- 
ment—The Texas  described— The  Maine  and  her  Fate 
— First-Class  Battle-Ships  ordered— The  Oregon— Tur- 
rets and  Barbettes — Conning-Tower,  Search-Light,  and 
Military  Mast— The  Torpedo  Equipment— The  Massa- 
chusetts and  the  Indiana — Loading  and  firing  the 
Great  Guns— The  Iowa  described— The  Kentucky  and 
the  Kearsarge— Cellulose  Packing— The  Double-Turret 
System — Armament — Electric  Motive  Mechanism — 
The  Alabama,  the  Wisconsin,  and  the  Illinois — Their 
Turrets  and  Batteries — Comparison  with  the  Majestic 
—An  English  Tribute  to  the  Superiority  of  our  Ships  .  176 

CHAPTER   V. 

THE   CRUISERS   NEW  YORK  AND   BROOKLYN. 

The  Armored  Cruiser  New  York — At  the  Kiel  Demon- 
stration— Size  and  Power  of  the  New  York — Armor 
and  Battery— The  Brooklyn— Its  Points  of  Difference 
from  the  New  York — Large  Berthing  Space — The 
Flag-Ships  of  the  West  India  Squadrons 211 

CHAPTER   VI. 

THE   PROTECTED   CRUISERS   OF   OUR  NAVY. 

Our  Navy  before  1890— The  Atlanta,  the  Boston,  and  the 
Chicago— Character  of  the  Charleston  and  the  Newark 
— The  Baltimore  and  her  Record — The  Philadelphia 
and  the  San  Francisco — The  Cincinnati  and  the  Raleigh 
built— The  Characteristics  of  the  Olympia,  Admiral 
Dewey's  Flag-Ship—Size  and  Speed  of  the  Columbia 
—Her  Triple  Screws— A  Phenomenal  Run— The  Min- 
neapolis—The Purchased  Cruisers  New  Orleans  and 
Topeka— Unprotected  Cruisers  Detroit,  Marblehead, 
and  Montgomery .  221 


CONTENTS.  7 

CHAPTER  VII. 

RAMS,    GUNBOATS,    AND  TORPEDO-BOATS. 

PACK 

The  Record  of  the  Ram— The  Katahdin— The  Dynamite 
Boat  Vesuvius — The  Buffalo  and  the  Dolphin — The 
Mosquito  Fleet — Our  Large  Gunboats — The  Helena 
and  the  Wilmington  and  their  Purpose — Composite 
Gunboats— Utility  of  the  Gunboat— The  Torpedo-Boat 
and  the  Destroyer— Their  Great  Speed— Our  Fleet  of 
Torpedo-Boats — Evolution  of  the  Torpedo-Boat — Tor- 
pedo-Boat of  the  Maine — The  Porter — Mission  of 
the  Torpedo-Boat— The  Bailey— The  Auxiliary  Fleet— 
The  Repair  and  Ambulance  Ships 239 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

THE   SUBMARINE  TORPEDO-BOAT. 

David  Bushnell  and  his  Invention — The  Keg  Exploit — 
Fulton's  Submarine  Boat — The  Career  of  the  David — 
Spanish  and  French  Inventions — The  Navy  Depart- 
ment Requirements— The  Baker  Boat— The  Holland 
Boat  described — The  Plunger — Possible  Future  of  the 
Submarine  Torpedo-Boat 255 


CHAPTER   IX. 

WAR-SQUADRONS    AND    NAVAL    RANK. 

Divisions  of  the  Fleet  in  the  War  with  Spain — The  North 
Atlantic  Squadron — The  Flying  Squadron— The  North- 
ern Patrol  Squadron — The  Asiatic  Squadron — Ships  of 
the  Pacific  Station — Names  of  Ships  and  Commanders 
— Changes  in  Squadrons — Rank  in  the  United  States 
Navy — Positions  and  Duties  of  Admiral  and  Commo- 
dore— Captain  and  Lower  Line-Officers — The  War- 
rant Officers — Staff-Officers — Flags  of  Commanding 
Officers— The  Naval  Academy  .  ....  266 


8  CONTENTS. 

PART   III. 

Armor  and  Armament. 

** 
CHAPTER   I. 

THE  CONTEST   BETWEEN   PLATE  AND   PROJECTILE. 

PAGE 

Effect  of  Rifled  Cannon — Iron,  Compound,  and  Steel 
Armor — Steel  Projectiles — Nickel  Steel — The  Harvey 
Process — Experiments  with  Harveyized  Steel — Efforts 
to  retard  Explosion  of  Shells — How  Armor-Plates 
are  shaped  and  fastened 276 

CHAPTER   II. 

MODERN  ORDNANCE  AND  ITS  WORK. 

The  Paixhan,  Dahlgren,  and  Rodman  Cannons — The  Art 
of  Rifling — Cast  Steel  used  in  Guns — The  Armstrong 
Gun — The  Brown  Segmental  Wire  Cannon — Flight  of 
Projectiles — The  Effect  of  Length  in  Guns — Breech 
Loading — Methods  of  closing  Breech — Sizes  of  Naval 
Guns — The  Range-Finder — Dynamite  and  Torpedo- 
Guns — The  Search- Light — Machine-Guns — Evolution 
of  the  Rapid-Fire  Gun — Its  Characteristics  and  Calibers 
— Rapidity  and  Effect  of  Fire 282 

CHAPTER   III. 

POWDER  AND   PROJECTILES. 

Developments  in  Gunpowder— Formation  of  Slow-Burn- 
ing Powder — Velocity  of  Projectiles — Pierced  Prisms 
of  Powder— Smokeless  Powders— Indurite— Danger 
to  Magazines — Improved  Projectiles — Sizes  of  Large 
Naval  Guns— The  Dynamite  Cartridge— The  Auto- 
mobile Torpedo— Invention  and  Character  of  the 
Whitehead  Torpedo— The  Howell  Torpedo— Utiliza- 
tion of  the  Torpedo  in  War— The  Diiigible  Torpedo 
—The  Lay,  the  Sims-Edison,  the  Brennan,  the  Victoria, 
the  Patrick,  and  the  Halpine  Torpedoes  ......  298 


CONTENTS.  9 

CHAPTER   IV. 

MINES  AND   FORTIFICATIONS. 

PAGE 

Fulton's  Conceptions — Torpedoes  in  the  Civil  War — The 
Submarine  Mine — Character  of  the  Observation  Mine; 
of  the  Electrical-Contact  Mine — The  Unit  of  Arrange- 
ment— Testing — Shapes  of  Mines — Countermining — 
Loss  of  the  Maine  by  a  Mine — Development  of  Harbor 
Fortifications — Armored  Forts — The  Gruson  Cupola 
— Disappearing  Turrets — Barbette  Forts — Disappear- 
ing Guns — The  Gordon  and  the  Buffington-Crozier 
Carriages — Sandy  Hook  Defences — Romer  Shoal — 
Cost  of  Battle-Ship  Equipment 314 

CHAPTER   V. 

THE   NAVIES   OF  THE  NATIONS. 

The  Navy  of  Spain  and  its  Fleets — Strength  of  the  British 
Navy — The  Navies  of  France,  Russia,  Germany,  Italy, 
and  Austria — Other  European  Navies — The  Navies  of 
China  and  Japan  and  of  the  South  American  States — 
The  United  States  Navy— The  Torpedo-Boat  ....  327 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

Map  of  the  West  Indies Frontispiece. 

Map  of  Atlantic  Ocean 18 

Naval  Battle  between  the  Bonhomme  Richard  and  the 

Serapis— -1779 .    30 

Frigate  Constellation — Launched  1797 46 

Composite  Gunboat  Marietta 58 

Despatch-Boat  Dolphin 72 

Naval  Battle  between  the  Monitor  and  the  Merrimac  .     .    80 

Naval  Commanders  in  the  Civil  War 90 

Gunboat  Helena 98 

Ship's  Company  of  the  Maine no 

Unprotected  Cruiser  Montgomery 118 

The  Invulnerable  Floating  Fort  within  the  Outer  Walls 

of  Modern  Battle-Ships 136 

Steel  Armored  Ram  Katahdin 152 

Double-Turreted  Monitor  Puritan 170 

The  Maine 180 

First-Class  Battle-Ship  Iowa 194 

First-Class     Battle-Ship     Kearsarge— Showing     Double 

Turrets 204 

Armored  Cruiser  New  York 212 

Four-Inch  Rapid-Fire  Gun 222 

Map  of  the  Philippine  Islands 228 

ii 


12  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

Sheer     Elevation     and     Longitudinal     Section     of    the 

Columbia 232 

Dynamite  Cruiser  Vesuvius .  242 

Torpedo-Boat  Porter 252 

The  Holland  Submarine  Torpedo-Boat 264 

Auxiliary  Cruiser  St.  Paul 272 

Naval  Commanders  of  War  with  Spain 276 

Eight-Inch  Gun  and  Crew  of  the  Atlanta 288 

Maxim  Automatic  Gun  firing  Four  Hundred  Shots  per 

Minute 294 

Ten-Inch  Disappearing  Gun — Firing  Position     ....  304 
i,  Bottom  Mines;  4,  Anchored  Mine  with  Tidal  Adjust- 
ment;   5,  Fish  Torpedo;    6,  Sims-Edison  Torpedo  di- 
rected by  Wire 312 

i,  Bottom  Mines;  2,  Anchored  Mines;  3,  Anchor;  4, 
Anchored  Mine  with  Tidal  Adjustment;  5,  Fish  Tor- 
pedo; 7,  Holland  Boat  discharging  Torpedo;  8,  Ram 

Katahdin 320 

Ten-Inch  Disappearing  Gun— Loading  Position  ....  326 


THE    NATION'S    NAVY. 

*** 

PART  I. 

History  of  the  American  Navy. 
*** 

CHAPTER   I. 

THE   NAVY   IN   THE   REVOLUTION. 

THE  navy  of  the  United  States  of  America  came 
legally  into  existence  on  Friday,  December  22,  1775, 
by  act  of  the  Continental  Congress  on  that  date.  Its 
record  has  been  one  of  exceptional  brilliancy.  In  all 
its  career,  during  the  century  and  a  quarter  of  its  ex- 
istence, it  has  scarcely  met  with  a  reverse,  its  story 
being  one  of  almost  unbroken  victory.  And  its  tri- 
umphs were  gained,  in  its  earlier  days,  over  the  far 
superior  sea  power  of  the  island  kingdom  beyond  the 
sea,  whose  proud  boast,  "  Britannia  rules  the  waves," 
failed  to  be  sustained  against  the  strength  and  daring 
of  American  ships  and  sailors. 

The  first  ocean  conflict  in  the  history  of  the  Ameri- 
can republic  took  place  at  the  port  of  Machias,  Maine, 
May  n,  1775,  instigated  by  the  tidings  of  the  battle 
of  Lexington,  which  in  those  slow  days  took  three 
weeks  to  reach  that  point,  a  few  hundred  miles  to  the 
north.  In  these  more  rapid  times  a  day's  delay  in 
receiving  news  from  Manila,  on  the  other  side  of  the 

13 


14  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

world,  seems  a  hardship  difficult  to  be  borne.  In 
the  harbor  at  Machias  lay  an  armed  British  schooner, 
the  Margaretta,  with  two  sloops  loading  with  lumber 
on  British  account.  A  party  of  the  townsmen,  filled 
with  patriotic  ardor,  and  led  by  Jeremiah  O'Brien,  "  an 
athletic  gallant  man,"  determined  to  make  a  prize  of 
this  representative  of  the  British  navy,  and  began 
operations  by  trying  to  seize  her  captain  at  church. 
Captain  Moore,  in  alarm,  fled  to  his  vessel,  fired  sev- 
eral shots  over  the  town  by  way  of  warning,  and  then, 
not  liking  the  looks  of  things  on  shore,  weighed 
anchor  and  stood  down-stream. 

The  next  morning  the  townsmen  took  possession 
of  one  of  the  sloops  and  stood  out  in  chase.  The 
crew  of  haymakers  and  woodsmen  were  armed  for  the 
main  part  with  pitchforks  and  axes,  to  which  they 
added  twenty  guns,  with  three  rounds  of  ammunition 
for  each.  Thus  provided  for  warfare,  and  with  a 
northwest  wind  in  their  sail,  these  thirty-five  bold 
patriots  stood  away  to  capture  an  armed  vessel  on  the 
high  seas. 

It  was  a  daring  venture,  but  Captain  Moore's  lack 
of  courage  gave  it  promise  of  success.  In  his  haste 
to  escape  he  carried  away  his  boom,  and  was  obliged 
to  obtain  another  by  robbing  a  merchant  vessel  which 
he  found  at  anchor.  This  gave  the  sloop,  which  was 
the  faster  sailer  of  the  two,  an  opportunity  to  come 
up,  and  the  captain  of  the  Margaretta  soon  found  him- 
self forced  to  stop  and  fight.  His  vessel  was  armed 
with  four  6-pounders  and  twenty  swivels,  and  his  crew 
outnumbered  that  of  the  sloop,  but  the  element  of 
resolution  seemed  sadly  wanting.  After  a  brief  ex- 
change of  shots  the  vessels  came  together  with  a  crash, 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  15 

and  the  men  of  Machias,  axe  and  pitchfork  in  hand, 
leaped  to  the  schooner's  deck.  The  British  crew,  thus 
brought  to  the  touch,  fought  with  some  bravery,  but 
Captain  Moore  soon  fell  dead  and  his  men  surren- 
dered. In  all,  twenty  men  were  killed  and  wounded 
in  this  short  but  sharp  fight. 

And  now,  arming  his  sloop  with  the  captured  can- 
non and  ammunition,  O'Brien  put  to  sea,  and  soon 
sent  several  prizes  in  to  Machias.  Other  daring  pa- 
triots quickly  followed  his  example,  their  boldness 
and  success  so  exasperating  Admiral  Graves,  the 
commander  of  the  British  fleet  on  the  coast,  that  he 
took  a  dastardly  step  of  revenge.  Four  armed  vessels 
were  sent  to  bombard  Falmouth  (now  Portland), 
Maine,  and  did  so  with  such  ruthless  cruelty  that 
nearly  the  whole  town  was  reduced  to  ashes,  and  more 
than  a  thousand  of  the  inhabitants,  men,  women,  and 
children,  were  driven  out  shelterless  to  endure  the 
cold  of  the  fierce  Maine  winter,  then  near  at  hand. 

This  act  of  barbarism  is  of  importance  in  connec- 
tion with  the  history  of  the  American  navy.  It  aroused 
wide-spread  indignation,  and  instigated  the  Congress 
to  commission  colonial  cruisers  and  privateers,  to 
order  the  confiscation  of  prizes,  and  to  take  active  steps 
towards  the  creation  of  a  navy.  Thirteen  ships,  in 
accordance  with  the  number  of  the  colonies,  were 
ordered  to  be  built,  five  of  them  to  carry  thirty-two 
guns;  five,  twenty-eight  guns,  and  three,  twenty-four 
guns.  But  that  a  naval  force  might  be  obtained  with- 
out delay,  several  vessels  were  purchased, — two  ships, 
renamed  the  Alfred  and  the  Columbus;  three  brigs, 
the  Andrea  Doria,  the  Cabot,  and  the  Providence; 
two  schooners,  the  Wasp  and  the  Fly;  and  a  sloop, 


16  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

the  Hornet.  The  final  act,  that  of  appointing  officers 
to  the  ships  obtained,  which  completed  the  formation 
of  the  navy,  was  taken  on  the  date  named,  December 
22,  1775. 

Esek  Hopkins,  brother  of  the  governor  of  Rhode 
Island,  a  warrior  who  had  seen  much  more  service 
on  shore  than  at  sea,  was  made  commander-in-chief 
of  the  navy.  (He  was  the  only  one  to  bear  this  title, 
which  indicated  that  he  was  equal  in  rank  with  Wash- 
ington.) Dudley  Saltonstall  was  appointed  captain 
of  the  Alfred,  Abraham  Whipple  of  the  Columbus, 
Nicholas  Biddle  of  the  Andrea  Doria,  and  John  B. 
Hopkins  of  the  Cabot.  Of  the  minor  officers,  it  will 
suffice  to  name  John  Paul  Jones,  first  lieutenant  of 
the  Alfred,  who  was  destined  to  become  the  most 
notable  figure  in  the  naval  history  of  the  United  States. 

One  ceremony  remained  to  be  performed  before 
the  new  navy  could  come  properly  into  service,  the 
raising  of  the  flag.  This  took  place  immediately  after 
the  commissioning  of  the  officers  by  Congress,  per- 
haps on  the  same  day,  though  the  date  is  not  men- 
tioned. Commodore  Hopkins  and  his  officers  made 
their  way  from  the  foot  of  Walnut  Street,  Philadelphia, 
to  the  fleet,  which  lay  anchored  in  the  Delaware,  while 
a  throng  of  people  gathered  along  the  river  shore,  and 
the  shipping  in  the  stream  was  bright  with  bunting 
and  crowded  with  spectators. 

Reaching  the  Alfred,  the  flag-ship  of  the  squadron, 
the  commodore  took  his  station  on  the  quarter-deck, 
surrounded  by  his  officers,  while  the  sailors  of  the 
crew,  who  had  been  called  aft  by  the  shrill  whistle  of 
the  boatswain,  stood  expectant  in  the  vessel's  waist. 
A  great  flag  of  yellow  silk  was  made  fast  to  the  mizzen 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  17 

signal  halliards,  when,  at  a  gesture  from  the  commo- 
dore, Lieutenant  John  Paul  Jones  grasped  the  hal- 
liards and,  amid  the  roar  of  cannon  and  the  cheers 
of  enthusiastic  patriots,  raised  the  standard  to  the 
peak.  On  unfolding,  its  floating  width  displayed  the 
figure  of  a  green  pine-tree,  at  whose  foot  lay  coiled 
a  rattlesnake,  with  the  significant  warning,  "  DON'T 
TREAD  ON  ME."  Following  this  was  set  the  commo- 
dore's pennant,  and  then  the  banner  of  the  colonial 
union,  the  same  that  floated  over  Washington's  camp 
at  Boston,  a  flag  of  thirteen  stripes,  alternately  red 
and  white,  with  the  British  union  jack  in  the  field, — 
the  flag  a  compromise  as  yet  between  liberty  and 
loyalty.  The  resolutions  of  Congress  were  then  read, 
and  the  first  fleet  of  the  American  navy  was  declared 
in  commission. 

The  fleet  thus  constituted  seemed  ludicrously  small 
in  comparison  with  the  naval  strength  of  the  foe.  The 
flag-ship  mounted  twenty  9-pounders,  with  four 
smaller  guns,  probably  4-pounders,  and  the  total  fleet 
carried  but  about  one  hundred  and  ten  guns,  of  which 
only  forty  threw  balls  of  as  much  as  nine  pounds 
weight.  The  enemy,  on  the  contrary,  had  then  on 
our  coast  or  ordered  hither  seventy-eight  ships,  carry- 
ing two  thousand  and  seventy-eight  guns,  of  which 
at  least  five  hundred  were  i8-pounders  or  heavier. 
And  the  British  ships  were  manned  by  trained  sea- 
men, those  of  America  mostly  by  landsmen  or  men 
destitute  of  naval  training  and  discipline.  It  seemed 
like  a  dwarf  contending  with  a  giant,  yet  the  captains 
of  America  were  to  prove  that  they  could  make  for 
themselves  a  good  record  even  against  such  dispro- 
portion. 


i8  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

The  first  service  ordered  for  the  fleet  was  against 
Lord  Dunsmore,  late  royal  governor  of  Virginia,  who 
was  then  afloat  as  a  fugitive  and  engaged  in  raids 
along  the  shores  of  Chesapeake  Bay.  But  Commo- 
dore Hopkins  disregarded  his  orders  and  sailed  in- 
stead to  the  Bahama  Islands,  with  the  purpose  of 
attacking  New  Providence,  which  he  had  heard  was 
poorly  defended  and  contained  a  large  quantity  of 
military  stores.  This  expedition  proved  successful. 
The  forts  were  carried  by  assault,  a  hundred  cannon 
and  valuable  stores  were  captured,  and  the  ships, 
heavily  laden  with  the  spoils  of  war,  set  sail  for  the 
north  on  March  17,  1776,  the  day  on  which  the  British 
army  and  fleet  were  leaving  Boston  in  haste  and  con- 
fusion. 

Two  weeks  later  the  vessels  of  the  fleet  were  making 
their  way  at  midnight  through  the  waters  between 
Block  Island  and  the  mainland,  when  a  large,  strange 
ship  suddenly  appeared  in  their  midst.  It  was  the 
British  twenty-gun  sloop  of  war  Glasgow,  with  a  crew 
of  one  hundred  and  fifty  men.  The  Americans,  un- 
trained in  their  duties,  were  keeping  but  a  careless 
watch,  and  a  hail  from  the  Cabot  was  answered  by  a 
broadside  from  the  stranger  which  came  like  a  shock 
to  the  sleepy  crews.  Thus  began  the  first  naval  con- 
flict in  the  history  of  the  American  navy.  For  an 
hour  the  battle  was  kept  up,  the  guns  of  the  Glasgow 
being  much  the  better  served.  Then,  finding  the  con- 
test too  hot  for  her,  she  took  to  flight,  pursued  in  vain 
by  the  heavily  laden  American  ships,  which  she  easily 
outsailed. 

The  escape  of  the  Glasgow  brought  an  end  to  Com- 
modore Hopkins's  naval  career.  He  was  severely 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  19 

blamed  for  his  failure  to  take  this  vessel,  his  good 
service  at  New  Providence  being  forgotten  in  the 
popular  anger,  which  blazed  out  in  its  usual  hasty 
fashion.  He  was  relieved  temporarily  of  his  com- 
mand, and  his  dilatory  action  when  restored  led  to 
his  permanent  removal.  This  first  American  com- 
modore was  not  wanting  in  bravery,  but  he  was  an 
old  man,  his  principal  service  had  been  on  shore,  and 
he  was  destitute  of  experience  in  the  command  of  a 
fleet. 

Its  battle  with  the  Glasgow  was  the  first  and  last 
occasion  on  which  the  American  squadron  acted  to- 
gether as  a  fleet.  But  during  the  remainder  of  the 
year  1776  its  vessels  did  good  service  independently, 
capturing  and  sending  into  port  a  large  number  of 
prizes.  The  first  naval  battle  on  even  terms  took  place 
between  the  Andrea  Doria,  then  commanded  by  Cap- 
tain Isaiah  Robinson,  and  the  British  brig  Racehorse. 
Its  result  was  the  more  significant  from  the  fact  that 
the  Racehorse  had  been  sent  out  expressly  to  capture 
the  Yankee  brig.  The  battle  took  place  in  the  West 
Indies,  off  the  western  end  of  Porto  Rico,  and  con- 
tinued for  two  hours,  at  the  end  of  which  the  Race- 
horse struck  her  colors  to  the  brig  she  had  proudly 
expected  to  bring  in  as  a  prize.  She  was  safely  con- 
veyed to  the  Delaware  by  Captain  Robinson  and  his 
crew. 

On  May  10,  1776,  Paul  Jones  was  given  his  first 
independent  command,  being  made  acting  captain  of 
the  twelve-gun  brig  Providence.  His  first  employ- 
ment was  to  carry  troops  and  convoy  merchantmen, 
in  which  service  he  was  so  successful  in  eluding  the 
many  cruisers  of  the  enemy  that  Congress  promoted 


20  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

him  in  August  to  the  full  rank  of  captain,  with  orders 
to  cruise  for  prizes  between  Boston  and  the  Delaware. 

Captain  Jones  quickly  showed  the  metal  of  which 
he  was  made.  On  September  i,  1776,  he  sighted  a 
fleet  of  five  vessels,  and  began  to  beat  up  towards  the 
largest,  believing  it  to  be  a  merchantman.  He  was 
close  at  hand  before  he  discovered  his  mistake.  It 
proved  to  be  the  frigate  Solebay,  of  twenty-eight  guns. 
Jones  at  once  bore  hastily  away,  but  the  frigate  pur- 
sued, gaining  slowly,  until,  after  a  four-hours'  run,  it 
was  less  than  one  hundred  yards  away. 

A  few  minutes  more,  and  a  broadside  from  its 
powerful  antagonist  might  have  swept  the  venture- 
some little  brig  from  the  sea.  But  Captain  Jones  was 
equal  to  the  occasion.  He  had  quietly  prepared  for 
a  daring  manoeuvre.  Suddenly  the  helm  was  put  hard 
up  and  the  little  craft  turned  and  dashed  directly  across 
the  frigate's  bows.  As  she  did  so  the  flag  of  the  re- 
public was  run  up  to  the  truck  and  a  broadside  swept 
the  Solebay's  deck.  In  a  moment  more  studding  sails 
were  set  on  both  sides  and  the  Providence  dashed  away 
before  the  breeze,  showing  her  heels  to  the  frigate's 
astonished  crew.  Recovering  from  their  confusion, 
they  sent  more  than  a  hundred  balls  in  her  wake,  but 
not  one  took  effect,  and  the  Providence,  with  swelling 
sails  and  the  best  of  the  wind,  dropped  her  great  an- 
tagonist in  the  rear. 

We  may  briefly  describe  the  remainder  of  Captain 
Jones's  cruise.  He  was  again  chased  by  a  British 
frigate,  the  Milford,  took  sixteen  prizes  and  destroyed 
a  number  of  vessels,  and  later  (then  in  command  of 
the  Alfred)  captured  the  brig  Mellish,  laden  with  army 
supplies,  among  them  ten  thousand  complete  uni- 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  21 

forms,  a  most  valuable  prize  for  the  American  army. 
On  his  way  home,  accompanied  by  a  small  fleet  of 
prizes,  he  was  a  second  time  chased  by  the  Milford. 
As  he  had  proved  his  power  to  outsail  her,  he  shrewdly 
led  her  off  from  the  course  of  the  prizes  at  night,  and 
the  next  day  gave  her  the  slip,  arriving  at  Boston  De- 
cember 15,  whither  his  prizes  had  preceded  him.  He 
was  repaid  for  his  service,  through  the  jealousy  of 
Commodore  Hopkins,  who  was  still  in  control  of  the 
fleet,  and  did  not  relish  the  activity  of  his  subordinate, 
by  being  ordered  back  to  the  little  brig  Providence. 

Meanwhile,  an  important  naval  battle  had  taken 
place  on  Lake  Champlain.  General  Carleton,  with  a 
fleet  of  twenty-five  vessels,  armed  with  eighty-nine 
guns  varying  from  6-  to  24-pounders,  was  descending 
the  lake  with  the  purpose  of  cutting  off  New  England 
from  the  remainder  of  the  country.  To  meet  him 
Benedict  Arnold  had  hastily  built  a  fleet,  which  con- 
sisted of  fifteen  small  vessels,  armed  with  eighty-eight 
guns  of  inferior  caliber  to  those  of  the  British  fleet, 
while  to  the  one  thousand  British  seamen  he  opposed 
seven  hundred  untrained  landsmen,  hastily  gathered 
to  man  his  rapidly  built  vessels.  But  Arnold  was  a 
host  in  himself,  and  his  unflinching  resolution  went 
far  to  make  up  for  the  deficiencies  in  his  fleet. 

Arnold's  flag-ship,  the  Congress,  was  an  eight-gun 
galley  moved  by  oars,  while  his  largest  vessel,  the 
twelve-gun  schooner  Royal  Savage,  compared  but 
poorly  with  the  three-hundred-ton  ship  Inflexible, 
with  her  eighteen  12-pounders,  the  flag-ship  of  the 
British  fleet.  At  daybreak  on  the  morning  of  October 
n,  1776,  Arnold's  little  fleet  lay  at  anchor  across  the 
north  end  of  the  strait  between  Valcour  Island  and 


22  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

the  mainland.  With  the  rising  sun  the  British  fleet 
came  gallantly  down  the  bay  before  a  fresh  wind, 
driving  past  the  island  without  discovering  that  an 
antagonist  lay  hidden  there.  Then,  seeing  the  hostile 
vessels,  and  fearing  to  expose  his  rear  to  the  Ameri- 
cans, Carleton  wore  round,  and  worked  back  against 
the  wind  to  attack  the  waiting  fleet. 

It  was  eleven  o'clock  before  the  battle  began,  and 
it  soon  brought  disaster  to  the  Americans,  for  the 
Royal  Savage,  disabled  by  shot,  ran  aground,  and 
was  set  on  fire  and  abandoned  by  her  crew,  who  es- 
caped to  the  island's  shores.  And  now  the  engage- 
ment grew  fierce  and  fast,  the  British,  in  addition  to 
their  superior  force,  being  aided  by  Indians  on  both 
the  main  and  the  island,  their  flank  attack  greatly 
annoying  the  Americans  at  their  guns.  Yet  the  gal- 
lant farmers,  inspired  by  their  valorous  leader,  fought 
on  resolutely  for  hours,  until  night  sank  over  the 
scene.  By  that  time  the  Congress  and  the  Washing- 
ton were  riddled  with  shot  holes  and  the  Philadelphia 
was  in  such  a  state  that  she  sank  within  an  hour  after 
the  end  of  the  fight. 

The  Americans  had  damaged  the  enemy,  but  they 
had  lost  heavily  in  men  and  ships,  and,  still  worse, 
had  used  up  nearly  all  their  ammunition.  If  he  re- 
mained where  he  was  destruction  or  capture  was  cer- 
tain in  the  morning,  and  Arnold  resolved  to  slip  away 
and  seek  shelter  under  the  guns  of  Crown  Point  or 
Ticonderoga.  The  night  was  dark  and  stormy,  with 
a  northerly  gale,  and,  weighing  anchor,  the  ships  stood 
down  the  channel,  passing  through  the  enemy's  line 
unseen.  At  daylight  of  the  next  morning  they  were 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  23 

ten  miles  away,  and  had  stopped  to  repair  damages 
under  the  lee  of  Schuyler  Island. 

Here  two  gondolas,  wounded  past  repair,  were  sunk, 
and  the  remaining  vessels  were  patched  up  to  enable 
them  to  keep  afloat.  But  the  wind  had  changed  and 
their  onward  flight  was  checked,  the  British  ships 
coming  up  while  they  were  still  some  leagues  distant 
from  Crown  Point.  Battle  under  the  circumstances 
seemed  madness,  but  Arnold  did  not  know  how  to 
surrender,  and  fought  on  with  his  few  remaining  boats 
until  he  had  but  a  wreck  beneath  his  feet.  The  shat- 
tered Washington  was  forced  to  surrender,  but  the 
few  galleys  left  were  run  ashore  and  set  on  fire,  Arnold 
covering  them  in  the  Congress  until  their  crews  were 
safe  ashore.  Then  he  ran  his  flag-ship  aground,  and 
stood  guard  while  the  crew  fired  her,  "  remaining  on 
board  until  she  was  in  flames,  lest  the  enemy  should 
get  possession  and  strike  his  flag,  which  was  kept 
flying  to  the  last." 

The  Congress  being  past  saving,  Arnold  leaped 
overboard  and  waded  ashore,  where  he  formed  his 
men  in  order  and  marched  away  through  the  forest 
to  Crown  Point.  It  was  one  of  the  most  gallant  con- 
tests in  the  naval  history  of  the  United  States,  and 
the  defeat  had  all  the  effect  of  a  victory,  since  Carleton 
was  in  no  condition  to  continue  his  enterprise,  and 
the  proposed  invasion  of  the  valley  of  the  Hudson 
came  to  an  end. 

In  the  autumn  of  1776  the  American  flag  was  first 
carried  across  the  Atlantic,  Captain  Wickes,  of  the 
sixteen-gun  brig  Reprisal,  capturing  two  prizes  while 
conveying  Benjamin  Franklin  across  the  ocean  to 
France.  The  brig  Lexington,  Captain  Johnson,  was 


24  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

sent  across  in  the  spring  of  1777.  These  two  vessels 
captured  numerous  prizes,  though  both  met  with  mis- 
fortune in  the  end.  The  Reprisal  foundered  during 
her  return  to  America,  and  the  Lexington  was  cap- 
tured by  the  cutter  Alert  after  having  expended  all 
her  ammunition.  Two  other  ships,  the  Surprise  and 
the  Revenge,  took  part  in  the  harrying  of  British  trade 
in  the  home  seas,  and  with  such  success  that  marine 
insurance  greatly  rose  in  London  and  French  ships 
found  abundant  cargoes  in  the  Thames.  American 
sailors  had  made  the  seas  unsafe  for  British  merchant- 
men. 

On  June  14,  1777,  Paul  Jones,  who  had  been  some- 
what shabbily  treated  by  Commodore  Hopkins  and 
by  Congress,  was  appointed  captain  of  the  Ranger, 
a  new  eighteen-gun  ship  built  at  Portsmouth,  New 
Hampshire.  It  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  ship  to 
fling  to  the  breeze  the  new  American  flag,  the  stars 
and  stripes,  recently  adopted.  The  Ranger  sought 
her  prey  in  British  waters,  but  was  delayed  in  sailing, 
and  did  not  reach  Nantes,  France,  until  December, 
whence  she  sailed  in  February,  1778,  for  Quiberon 
Bay  in  convoy  of  some  American  merchantmen.  Here 
lay  a  French  fleet,  and  the  new  flag  of  the  United 
States  received  its  first  salute  by  a  foreign  power.  On 
April  10  Captain  Jones  left  the  harbor  of  Brest  and 
steered  straight  for  the  coast  of  England,  to  begin 
that  brilliant  career  which  has  given  him  such  renown 
in  American  history. 

He  was  not  long  in  astonishing  the  English  by  his 
daring.  In  the  port  of  Whitehaven  lay  two  hundred 
and  twenty  vessels,  large  and  small.  These  he  pro- 
posed to  burn,  as  a  warning  to  the  enemy  to  cease 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  25 

their  burnings  on  the  American  coast.  With  a  boat's 
crew  of  fifteen  men  he  easily  captured  the  two  forts 
that  guarded  the  harbor,  and  attempted  to  carry  out 
his  plan,  setting  on  fire  a  large  ship  in  the  midst  of  the 
fleet.  But  the  enemy  had  now  mustered  in  force,  and 
he  was  obliged  to  withdraw  before  much  damage  had 
been  done.  His  next  project  was  as  bold  as  this,  it 
being  no  less  daring  a  scheme  than  to  take  prisoner 
an  English  earl  in  his  own  castle,  to  be  held  as  a 
hostage  for  the  better  treatment  of  American  prisoners. 
Fortunately  for  the  Earl  of  Selkirk,  whose  house  was 
captured,  he  was  absent  from  home,  and  the  sailors 
contented  themselves  with  carrying  off  his  silverware. 
This  was,  years  afterwards,  returned  by  Jones  to  the 
earl  with  his  compliments. 

On  April  24  the  Ranger  came  into  contact  with  the 
Drake,  a  twenty-gun  British  man-of-war,  off  the  port 
of  Belfast,  Ireland.  The  Drake  was  a  larger  ship  than 
her  antagonist,  but  Captain  Jones  boldly  attacked, 
hoisting  the  stars  and  stripes,  the  first  time  the  new 
American  standard  had  been  seen  in  a  naval  battle. 
The  conflict  was  a  sharp  one.  The  sails  and  rigging 
of  the  Drake  were  soon  in  tatters,  her  flag  was  twice 
shot  away,  her  captain  fell  dead  and  her  first  lieutenant 
mortally  wounded,  and  at  length,  just  as  the  sun  was 
sinking  behind  the  Irish  hills,  a  cry  for  quarter  was 
heard  and  the  British  ship  surrendered.  Forty-two  of 
her  men  had  been  killed  and  wounded;  the  Ranger 
lost  but  eight. 

While  these  events  were  taking  place  in  British 
waters,  little  of  importance  in  naval  history  occurred 
on  the  American  coast.  Of  naval  battles,  the  most 
notable  was  that  between  the  thirty-two-gun  frigate 


26  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

Randolph,  the  first  of  those  built  by  Congress,  and 
the  British  sixty-four-gun  ship  of  the  line  Yarmouth, 
in  West  Indian  waters.  Captain  Nicholas  Biddle,  in 
command  of  the  Randolph,  fought  his  thirty-two 
small  guns  against  the  sixty-four  large  ones  for  a  full 
hour,  at  the  end  of  which  time  a  shot  penetrated  the 
Randolph's  magazine  and  blew  her  into  fragments. 
Of  her  three  hundred  and  fifteen  men,  only  four  re- 
mained alive.  This  disaster  was  preceded  by  the  loss 
of  the  thirty-two-gun  frigate  Hancock,  which,  after 
capturing  the  twenty-eight-gun  frigate  Fox,  was  sur- 
rounded by  a  fleet  of  three  men-of-war  and  forced  to 
surrender.  Another  of  the  new  American  frigates, 
the  Virginia,  ran  aground  in  Chesapeake  Bay,  and  her 
captain  and  crew  were  forced  to  escape  in  their  boats 
from  two  British  war-ships  near  by.  Still  another 
vessel  was  lost  during  the  year,  the  Raleigh,  Captain 
Barry,  after  a  running  fight  with  two  British  frigates. 
In  the  end  the  Raleigh  grounded  on  the  coast  of 
Maine,  and  Barry  and  his  men  escaped  in  their  boats. 
The  same  gallant  officer,  some  time  before,  had,  with 
twenty-seven  men,  boarded  the  British  armed 
schooner  Alert  in  the  Delaware,  and  captured  it  with 
its  one  hundred  and  sixteen  men  and  officers,  sinking 
the  schooner  and  two  transports  which  it  convoyed. 

Of  the  thirteen  frigates  which  Congress  had  built, 
only  four  remained  at  the  end  of  1778,  some  being 
lost,  as  described,  and  the  others  caught  and  captured 
in  port  through  operations  of  the  British  army.  But 
the  surprise  was  that  they  were  able  to  make  any  con- 
test at  all,  for  during  1778  the  British  fleet  in  American 
waters  numbered  eighty-nine,  armed  with  two  thou- 
sand five  hundred  and  seventy-six  guns,  while  the 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  27 

Americans  had,  all  told,  fourteen  ships,  with  three 
hundred  and  thirty-two  guns. 

Meanwhile,  the  American  seas  swarmed  with  pri- 
vateers, whose  bold  onslaughts  made  havoc  among 
British  transports  and  merchantmen.  Up  to  the  end 
of  1777  the  American  ships  of  war  and  privateers  had 
taken  seven  hundred  and  thirty-three  prizes,  of  which 
five  hundred  and  fifty-nine  were  brought  into  port, 
their  value  being  estimated  at  £2,600,000.  The  total 
number  of  privateers  is  given  at  one  hundred  and 
seventy-three,  carrying  two  thousand  five  hundred  and 
fifty-six  guns.  Of  these,  thirty-four  were  captured. 
Of  a  fleet  of  sixty  vessels  from  Ireland  for  the  West 
Indies,  no  less  than  thirty-five  were  brought  in  by 
privateers.  Nor  did  the  valiant  adventurers  hesitate 
to  try  conclusions  with  ships  of  war.  Captain  Trux- 
ton,  in  the  privateer  St.  James,  fought  off  a  thirty- 
two-gun  ship  that  had  been  sent  out  to  capture  him. 
Captain  Williams,  in  the  Hazard,  captured  the  better- 
armed  brig  Active,  and  in  the  twenty-gun  ship  Pro- 
tector fought  off  the  British  thirty-two-gun  frigate 
Thames.  Captain  Waters,  in  the  Thorn,  of  sixteen 
guns,  fought  with  two  British  sloops  of  war,  the  Gov- 
ernor Tryon,  of  sixteen  guns,  and  the  Sir  William 
Erskine,  of  eighteen  guns.  After  two  hours  of  des- 
perate fighting  the  Tryon  struck  and  the  Erskine  drew 
off.  But  Waters  pursued  and  compelled  her  to  strike, 
the  Tryon  taking  advantage  of  the  opportunity  to 
escape.  The  next  day  Waters,  with  but  sixty  men 
left  on  his  vessel,  met  the  Sparlin,  of  eighteen  guns 
and  ninety-seven  men,  and  added  her  to  his  list  of 
prizes. 

We  may  end  the  story  of  the  privateers  with  the 


28  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

exploit  of  the  Hyder  AH,  Captain  Barney,  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania State  service,  in  1782.  With  an  armament 
of  sixteen  6-pounders  he  fought  and  captured  the 
British  brig  Monk,  of  sixteen  12-pounders  and  two 
long  sixes;  then  drove  ashore  her  consort,  the  Fair 
American;  and  ended  by  eluding  the  frigate  Quebec, 
which  had  looked  on  in  dismay  at  this  American  vic- 
tory, while  prevented  by  the  shoals  of  Delaware  Bay 
from  taking  part.  Thus  triumphantly  ends  the  record 
of  American  privateering  in  the  Revolutionary  War. 

There  remains  to  describe  the  chief  event  in  the 
naval  history  of  the  Revolution,  the  most  famous 
event,  indeed,  in  the  naval  history  of  the  United  States, 
the  great  sea-fight  between  the  Bonhomme  Richard 
and  the  Serapis.  After  his  brilliant  cruise  with  the 
Ranger,  Paul  Jones  was  long  delayed  by  lack  of  funds 
in  the  treasury  of  the  republic  from  obtaining  a  larger 
ship.  At  length  there  was  bought  for  him  an  old 
East  India  merchantman,  shapeless  and  unwieldy,  and 
so  worn  out  with  long  service  that  her  timbers  were 
in  a  state  of  dry  rot.  This  he  named,  through  his 
admiration  for  Franklin's  "  Poor  Richard,"  the  Bon- 
homme Richard. 

Ordered  to  this  ship  on  February  4,  1779,  it  took 
so  long  to  fit  her  for  service  that  it  was  June  19  before 
he  was  able  to  sail.  An  accident  obliged  him  to  re- 
turn, and  August  14  arrived  before  his  cruise  finally 
began.  The  delay  enabled  him  to  ship  more  than 
one  hundred  American  sailors,  freed  by  exchange  from 
English  prisons.  He  also  added  to  his  crew  as 
master's  mate  Richard  Dale,  who  had  escaped  from 
prison  in  England,  and  was  a  man  of  his  own  caliber. 
When  he  did  set  sail  it  was  with  a  fleet,  his  own  ship 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  29 

of  thirty-six  guns  and  three  consorts,  the  Alliance,  the 
Pallas,  and  the  Vengeance. 

We  may  pass  over  the  career  of  this  fleet,  which 
cruised  around  the  British  isles,  meeting  nothing  but 
merchantmen,  until  September  23,  when  it  came  in 
sight  of  a  fleet  of  forty-two  ships  off  Flamborough 
Head.  They  proved,  upon  examination,  to  be  mer- 
chantmen under  convoy  of  two  frigates,  the  Serapis, 
of  fifty  guns,  and  the  Countess  of  Scarborough,  of 
twenty-two  6-pounders.  In  the  memorable  battle  that 
followed  the  Vengeance  was  too  far  away  to  take  part, 
the  Pallas  fought  with  and  captured  the  Countess  of 
Scarborough,  the  Alliance,  under  an  insubordinate 
French  commander,  took  part  in  the  fight  only  to 
do  harm,  and  the  Bonhomme  Richard  was  left  to  en- 
counter the  far  superior  Serapis  alone. 

Night  had  fallen  before  the  battle  began.  At  the 
first  fire  two  of  the  three  i8-pounders  on  the  lower 
deck  broadside  of  the  Bonhomme  Richard  burst,  kill- 
ing or  disabling  their  crews,  and  leaving  but  the  12- 
and  9-pounders  of  the  upper  deck  safe  for  use.  The 
Serapis  had  ten  i8-pounders  in  each  battery,  which 
in  time  tore  the  ports  of  her  antagonist  into  a  gaping 
chasm  on  both  sides,  many  of  the  balls  crossing 
through  and  falling  into  the  sea  beyond.  Some  of 
them,  however,  penetrated  the  Bonhomme  Richard 
below  the  water  level,  and  she  was  soon  "  leaking  like 
a  basket."  It  was  in  this  seemingly  desperate  junc- 
ture of  affairs  that  Captain  Jones  answered  the  hail 
of  the  captain  of  the  Serapis,  asking  if  he  had  sur- 
rendered, with  the  famous  reply,  "I  have  not  yet 
begun  to  fight." 

Nor  was  this  a  boast.     Shortly  afterwards  the  two 


30  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

ships  drifted  together,  and  at  Jones's  order  the  jib- 
boom  of  the  Serapis  was  firmly  lashed  to  the  mizzen- 
mast  of  his  ship.  They  lay  side  by  side,  so  close  to- 
gether that  the  English  gunners  found  it  impossible 
to  open  their  starboard  ports,  and  were  obliged  to  fire 
through  and  blow  them  off.  So  close  were  they  that 
in  loading  the  gunners  of  each  ship  had  to  thrust  the 
handles  of  the  rammers  through  the  enemy's  ports,  in 
order  to  insert  them  into  the  muzzles  of  the  guns. 

The  gunners  of  the  Serapis  had  the  best  of  it,  how- 
ever. In  time  every  12-pounder  of  the  Bonhomme 
Richard  but  one  was  silenced,  and  only  two  Q-pounders 
were  left  in  service  on  the  fighting  side  of  the  deck. 
The  strait  was  a  desperate  one.  The  ship  was  making 
water  so  fast  that  she  threatened  soon  to  sink,  she  was 
on  fire  in  several  places,  and  while  in  this  perilous 
strait  the  Alliance  sailed  across  her  bows  and,  whether 
by  mistake  or  through  design  on  the  part  of  her  cap- 
tain, poured  in  two  broadsides,  killing  a  number  of 
her  crew. 

Yet  Captain  Jones  continued  to  fight  the  enemy,  the 
water,  and  the  fire,  though  the  water  was  five  feet  deep 
in  the  hold,  and  an  officer,  thinking  all  at  an  end,  had 
released  the  two  or  three  hundred  English  prisoners, 
the  results  of  former  captures,  confined  below.  At 
this  moment  a  frightened  gunner  sought  to  haul  down 
the  flag,  crying  to  the  British  for  quarter,  but  he  was 
felled  to  the  deck  by  an  empty  pistol  flung  at  his  head 
by  the  furious  captain. 

Meanwhile,  Master's  Mate  Dale,  a  man  of  the  cap- 
tain's own  type,  shrewdly  disposed  of  the  released 
prisoners  by  telling  them  that  the  Serapis  was  sink- 
ing and  putting  them  at  working  the  pumps  and  fight- 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  31 

ing  the  fire  to  save  the  vessel  they  were  on.  The  end 
came  through  an  act  of  one  of  the  marines  who  were 
fighting  the  enemy  from  the  maintop  of  the  Bon- 
homme  Richard.  Climbing  out  on  the  yard-arm,  he 
began  dropping  hand  grenades  into  an  open  hatch  of 
the  Serapis  below.  The  first  of  these  chanced  to  fall 
into  and  explode  a  heap  of  gun-cartridges  which  had 
been  carelessly  piled  behind  the  guns.  The  explosion 
was  terrific  in  its  effects,  twenty  of  the  British  crew 
being  fairly  blown  to  pieces,  others  scorched  or 
wounded,  and  the  ship  set  on  fire. 

This  ended  the  struggle.  The  fire  of  the  marines 
from  the  tops  and  of  the  Q-pounders  worked  by  Jones 
himself  .had  cleared  the  upper  deck  of  the  Sera- 
pis,  Captain  Pearson  being  left  there  alone.  As  the 
roar  of  the  explosion  reached  his  ears  and  the  smoke 
ascended  through  the  hatches,  his  resolution  at  length 
gave  way,  and,  running  to  the  flag,  which  had  been 
nailed  to  the  mast,  he  tore  it  down  with  his  own  hands. 
Captain  Jones,  who,  according  to  the  ordinary  rules 
of  warfare,  should  have  surrendered  an  hour  before, 
now  triumphantly  gave  the  order  to  "  cease  firing." 
The  Serapis  was  his. 

A  few  words  must  tell  what  followed.  The  Bon- 
homme  Richard  was  in  such  a  state  that  it  was  impos- 
sible to  save  her,  and  at  nine  o'clock  the  next  morning 
the  gallant  craft  sank  beneath  the  sea,  her  victorious 
battle-flag  still  flying  at  her  mast.  On  board  the 
Serapis  Jones  and  his  victorious  crew  came  safely  into 
port.  Captain  Pearson  had  made  a  brave  defence, 
and  the  British  ministry  rewarded  him  for  his  courage 
by  making  him  a  knight.  As  for  John  Paul  Jones, 
the  furious  officials  denounced  him  as  a  pirate,  putting 


32  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

a  price  of  ten  thousand  guineas  on  his  head,  dead  or 
alive.  In  Paris,  however,  he  was  received  as  a  hero, 
and  his  fame  as  a  hero  still  exists.  In  regard  to  Cap- 
tain Pearson's  reward  for  being  defeated,  Jones  satiri- 
cally remarked  that  if  he  had  a  chance  to  fight  with 
him  again  he  would  make  him  a  lord. 

Of  the  subsequent  naval  battles  of  the  Revolution 
may  be  named  that  in  which  the  Trumbull,  half  dis- 
masted in  a  gale,  was  attacked  by  two  British  ships. 
Her  crew  were  largely  Englishmen,  who  ran  below, 
leaving  but  fifty  men  to  fight,  among  whom  was 
Richard  Dale,  who  had  won  fame  on  the  Bonhomme 
Richard.  For  an  hour  the  gallant  fifty  held  their  own 
against  this  double  force,  and  surrendered  only  when 
a  third  British  ship,  the  General  Monk,  came  up  and 
prepared  to  rake  their  decks  at  short  range.  In  the 
same  year  (1781)  the  Alliance  fought  at  once  two 
British  vessels,  the  sixteen-gun  brig  Atalanta  and  the 
fourteen-gun  brig  Trepassy,  and  captured  them  both. 
The  last  naval  battle  of  the  Revolution — except  the 
capture  of  the  General  Monk  by  a  privateer — was 
fought  by  the  Alliance,  Captain  Barry.  On  March 
7,  1782,  she  met  the  thirty-eight-gun  ship  Sibylle,  and 
forced  her,  after  nearly  an  hour's  fight,  to  hang  out 
signals  of  distress.  But  as  two  other  British  frigates 
were  now  near  at  hand,  and  as  a  French  frigate  on 
which  Barry  had  depended  for  aid  declined  to  take 
part,  he  was  obliged  to  relinquish  his  prey.  It  will 
suffice  to  say,  in  conclusion,  that,  the  difference  in 
power  considered,  the  record  of  the  American  navy 
in  the  Revolution  was  one  of  exceptional  credit  and 
honor. 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 


33 


CHAPTER   II. 

NAVAL  WARS  WITH   FRANCE,  ALGIERS,  AND  TRIPOLI. 

THE  end  of  the  Revolutionary  War  left  the  United 
States  greatly  destitute  of  naval  vessels.  Of  those 
bought  and  built  during  the  war,  only  three,  bearing 
eighty-four  guns  in  all,  remained,  the  others  having 
gradually  disappeared  before  the  far  superior  force  of 
the  enemy  or  through  the  perils  of  the  sea.  But  they 
had  nobly  made  their  mark,  and  for  the  most  part, 
like  the  Bonhomme  Richard,  came  to  their  end  with 
glory.  American  prowess  on  the  sea  had  won  ac- 
knowledgment throughout  Europe,  the  achievements 
of  the  navy  being  added  to  by  the  deeds  of  the  priva- 
teers, which  had  captured  sixteen  English  cruisers, 
while  not  one  American  cruiser  had  been  taken  by  a 
British  privateer. 

With  the  war  the  navy  ended.  All  the  men  that 
remained  were  paid  off  and  discharged  and  all  the  re- 
maining ships  were  sold.  Even  Paul  Jones,  who  had 
been  highly  honored  by  the  Congress  and  people  of 
the  States,  was  permitted  to  pass  from  the  service  of 
America  into  that  of  Russia,  and  the  new  republic  was 
left  utterly  undefended  at  sea.  This  lack  of  foresight 
in  the  government  exposed  our  commerce  freely  to 
the  ravages  of  the  pirates  of  Algiers,  then  dominant 
in  the  Mediterranean  and  making  all  nations  their 
prey.  In  a  single  cruise  in  1785  the  pirate  squadron 
captured  eleven  American  merchant  ships  and  made 

3 


34  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

slaves  of  one  hundred  and  twelve  seamen.  This  out- 
rage could  not  be  avenged  by  our  navy,  there  being 
not  a  single  war-ship  afloat  under  the  American  flag. 
Having  no  ships  of  its  own,  the  government  was 
obliged  to  build  one  for  Algiers,  which,  armed  and 
fitted  for  sea,  and  freighted  with  twenty-six  barrels 
of  silver  dollars  and  many  valuable  presents,  was  sent 
to  the  Dey  as  a  ransom  for  the  captives  in  his  hands. 

This  humiliation  called  attention  strongly  to  the 
need  of  a  navy,  but  years  passed  before  Congress 
could  be  induced  to  pass  a  bill  for  its  creation.  The 
measure  was  finally  carried  by  a  majority  of  two  votes 
only,  and  became  law  on  March  27,  1794.  As  there 
was  no  navy,  there  was  no  naval  department  in  the 
government,  this  not  being  organized  until  1798,  so 
that  the  carrying  out  of  the  new  law  fell  into  the  hands 
of  General  Knox,  Secretary  of  War.  He  conferred 
with  Joshua  Humphreys,  a  Philadelphia  Quaker  and 
at  that  time  the  ablest  ship-builder  in  the  United 
States,  who  suggested  that,  since  this  country  could 
never  support  as  many  war-vessels  as  the  great  powers 
of  Europe,  its  ships  should  be  made  as  fast  and  strong 
as  any  craft  afloat.  He  proposed  a  longer  and  broader 
vessel  than  the  prevailing  model  and  one  sitting  deeper 
in  the  water.  It  was  to  be  capable  of  carrying  as 
many  guns  on  one  deck  as  the  others  carried  on  two, 
and  its  greater  stability  would  permit  a  larger  spread 
of  canvas,  so  that,  if  for  any  reason  unable  to  fight, 
the  Yankee  ships  could  still  outsail  their  opponents 
and  escape  capture. 

The  theories  of  Mr.  Humphreys  were  accepted,  and 
long  continued  to  prevail  in  the  American  navy.  Six 
frigates  were  ordered  to  be  built  on  the  new  model, 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  35 

— the  Constitution,  the  President,  and  the  United 
States,  sister  ships  of  forty-four  guns  each;  and  the 
Chesapeake,  the  Congress,  and  the  Constellation,  each 
of  thirty-six  guns.  Of  these,  the  United  States,  built 
by  Humphreys,  was  first  launched,  on  July  10,  1797. 
On  October  21  of  the  same  year  the  Constitution, 
famous  later  as  the  "  Old  Ironsides,"  touched  the 
water.  She  is  still  afloat  after  a  century  of  duty,  a 
proud  relic  of  the  past.  At  a  later  date  about  a  dozen 
smaller  ships  were  built  or  bought,  together  with  a 
number  of  brigs,  schooners,  and  galleys,  and  by  1798 
the  United  States,  after  a  long  interval  of  neglect,  was 
once  more  provided  with  a  navy. 

It  was  ready  none  too  soon.  The  Revolution  had 
come  in  France,  the  new  republic  was  at  war  with 
most  of  the  powers  of  Europe,  and  its  cruisers  were 
freely  capturing  American  merchantmen,  without  re- 
gard to  whether  they  carried  contraband  of  war  or 
not,  it  being  enough  if  they  were  bound  to  ports  hos- 
tile to  France.  The  condition  was  a  strained  one  and 
resulted  in  a  naval  war  between  the  United  States  and 
France.  No  declaration  of  war  was  made,  but  on 
May  28,  1798,  the  war-ships  of  the  United  States  were 
authorized  "to  capture  any  French  vessel  found  near 
the  coast  preying  on  American  commerce." 

At  this  time  the  American  navy  was  made  up  of 
twenty-two  ships,  mounting  four  hundred  and  fifty-six 
guns  and  carrying  three  thousand  four  hundred  and 
eighty-four  men.  These  were  not  landsmen,  as  of 
old,  but  many  of  them  had  been  trained  in  the  cruisers 
and  privateers  of  Revolutionary  times,  and  others  had 
spent  their  lives  upon  the  sea.  The  first  naval  battle 
of  importance  in  the  new  war  took  place  on  February 


36  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

9,  1799,  in  the  Caribbean  Sea,  between  the  Constella- 
tion, Captain  Truxton,  of  old  privateer  fame,  and  the 
French  thirty-eight-gun  frigate  LTnsurgente.  The 
Frenchman  held  his  own  for  an  hour  and  a  quarter  and 
then  surrendered.  He  had  lost  seventy  in  killed  and 
wounded  and  the  Constellation  five.  The  two  vessels 
were  soon  after  separated  by  a  gale,  before  all  the 
prisoners  had  been  removed,  there  being  one  hundred 
and  seventy-three  of  the  French  crew  still  on  board 
the  L'Insurgente  and  but  thirteen  Americans.  Yet  the 
latter  drove  the  prisoners  below,  and  kept  them  there 
while  for  three  days  and  two  nights  they  were  working 
the  vessel  into  port. 

On  February  2,  1800,  the  Constellation  had  another 
severe  battle  with  the  enemy,  this  time  with  the  Ven- 
geance, a  vessel  in  every  way  more  than  her  match, 
her  guns  throwing  eleven  hundred  and  fifteen  pounds 
of  shot  against  eight  hundred  and  twenty-six  pounds 
for  the  Constellation.  Yet  Truxton  fought  his  ship 
with  such  skill  and  valor  that  at  midnight  the  French- 
man, unable  to  fight  longer,  lowered  his  flag.  His 
main  standing  rigging  had  been  completely  shot  away, 
and  Truxton  made  vigorous  efforts  to  save  the  mast, 
but  before  preventers  could  be  sent  up  the  spar  fell, 
carrying  with  it  Midshipman  James  Jarvis  and  several 
men.  The  brave  young  midshipman  could  have  es- 
caped before  the  mast  gave  way,  but  preferred  to  face 
death  at  his  post.  His  devotion  to  duty  has  made  him 
a  hero  in  American  naval  annals. 

The  Vengeance  was  won  and  lost.  She  slipped 
away  in  the  night  and  escaped,  the  Constellation  being 
too  crippled  in  her  rigging  to  pursue.  On  October 
12,  1800,  another  naval  battle  was  fought,  this  time 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  37 

between  the  Boston  and  the  French  ship  Berceau. 
The  Boston  was  the  larger  and  stronger,  but  the 
valiant  captain  of  the  Berceau  kept  up  the  fight  with 
indomitable  courage,  the  battle  continuing  for  twenty- 
two  hours.  At  the  end  of  that  time  the  Berceau,  re- 
duced to  a  wreck,  was  obliged  to  yield. 

This  ocean  war,  fought  without  declaration,  con- 
tinued for  nearly  three  years,  ending  with  a  treaty  of 
peace  signed  February  3,  1801.  The  ships  of  war 
taken  by  our  navy  were  returned  to  France ;  the  priva- 
teers and  armed  merchantmen,  seventy-six  in  all,  were 
retained.  No  American  war-ship  was  captured  by  the 
French  except  the  fourteen-gun  ship  Retaliation, 
renamed  from  the  Croyable,  which  had  been  taken 
from  them  in  the  beginning  of  the  war,  and  was  re- 
taken by  the  thirty-eight-gun  frigate  L'Insurgente. 
The  few  conflicts  of  this  war  showed  strongly  the 
fighting  power  of  the  new  ships  of  the  American  navy 
and  the  efficiency,  courage,  and  discipline  of  their 
crews. 

But  our  new  navy  was  not  left  long  at  rest.  The  pi- 
rates of  the  Barbary  states  continued  their  raids  upon 
American  commerce,  and  on  May  20,  1801,  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Navy  ordered  a  "  squadron  of  observation" 
to  the  Mediterranean.  Captain  Richard  Dale,  the 
former  master's  mate  of  the  Bonhomme  Richard,  was 
made  commodore  of  this  fleet,  which  consisted  of  the 
frigates  President,  Philadelphia,  and  Essex,  and  the 
twelve-gun  schooner  Enterprise,  which  had  captured 
eight  French  vessels  in  the  recent  war. 

The  appearance  of  this  fleet  before  Algiers  soon 
brought  the  Dey  to  terms,  and  he  grew  warm  in  pro- 
fessions of  friendship  for  the  United  States.  But  the 


38  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

Bashaw  of  Tripoli  continued  hostile,  and  on  August 
i,  1 80 1,  a  fight  took  place  between  the  Enterprise  and 
the  Tripoli,  of  fourteen  guns  and  eighty  men.  For 
two  hours  the  battle  continued,  the  corsairs  twice 
lowering  their  flag  and  twice  firing  treacherously  upon 
the  Americans  who  came  to  take  possession.  At 
length,  when  the  exasperated  tars  had  determined  to 
send  them  to  the  bottom,  the  captain  of  the  corsair 
not  only  lowered  his  flag  but  flung  it  into  the  sea,  and 
begged  humbly  for  quarter.  He  had  lost,  in  killed 
and  wounded,  nearly  fifty  of  his  eighty  men,  while 
the  Enterprise  had  not  lost  a  man. 

The  bashaw  continued  obdurate,  and  the  blockade 
of  his  port  went  on.  On  October  31,  1803,  the  squad- 
ron met  with  a  serious  disaster,  which  in  the  end  led 
to  one  of  the  most  daring  deeds  in  our  naval  history. 
The  frigate  Philadelphia,  while  in  hot  pursuit  of  a 
vessel  that  was  running  the  blockade,  pursued  it  too 
far  for  safety  into  the  harbor  of  Tripoli,  and  suddenly 
ran  upon  a  reef.  Every  effort  was  made  to  get  her 
off,  anchors  and  guns  were  thrown  overboard,  but 
all  to  no  effect.  The  gunboats  of  the  enemy  came 
out  and  opened  fire  upon  her;  she  heeled  with  the 
falling  of  the  tide  until  she  could  bring  no  guns  to 
bear  upon  her  foes,  and  surrender  became  inevitable. 
The  magazine  was  flooded,  the  pumps  were  disabled, 
holes  were  bored  through  her  bottom,  and,  this  done, 
the  flag  was  hauled  down  and  the  officers  and  crew, 
three  hundred  and  fifteen  in  all,  surrendered  them- 
selves prisoners  of  war. 

Two  days  later  a  strong  wind  raised  the  waters  and 
the  Tripolitans  pulled  the  frigate  off  the  reef,  having 
first  stopped  up  the  holes  in  her  hull.  She  was  towed 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  39 

in  triumph  to  an  anchorage  near  the  bashaw's  palace, 
her  anchors,  guns,  and  shot  were  recovered,  and  the 
Tripolitan  shipwrights  began  to  refit  her  as  a  welcome 
addition  to  their  fleet. 

This  event  was  followed  by  the  deed  of  daring  of 
which  we  have  spoken.  In  spite  of  the  vigilance  of 
the  Moorish  authorities,  Captain  Bainbridge,  of  the 
Philadelphia,  managed  to  send  a  secret  letter  to  the 
fleet,  in  which  he  suggested  that  an  effort  should  be 
made  to  destroy  the  ship  at  her  anchorage,  and  pro- 
posed the  plan  that  was  soon  after  adopted. 

In  command  of  the  Enterprise  at  that  time  was 
Lieutenant  Stephen  Decatur,  afterwards  a  famous 
captain  and  commodore  in  the  navy.  To  him  was 
intrusted  the  dangerous  adventure  suggested  by  Bain- 
bridge.  He  had  taken  a  Tripolitan  ketch  called  the 
Mastico,  and  with  this,  and  a  picked  crew  and  officers 
numbering  about  eighty  in  all,  he  sailed  for  the  harbor 
of  Tripoli,  February  9,  1804.  A  gale  hindered  their 
entering  the  harbor  until  the  night  of  the  i6th,  when, 
with  all  the  crew  hidden  except  six  men  in  Moorish 
dresses,  the  ketch  made  its  way  towards  the  Phila- 
delphia. The  brig  Siren,  which  accompanied  them, 
remained  outside  to  pick  up  the  crew  of  the  Mastico 
if  they  should  be  obliged  to  take  to  their  small  boats. 

Professing  to  have  lost  their  anchors  during  a  gale, 
they  asked  and  obtained  permission  to  make  fast  to 
the  cables  of  the  frigate.  They  had  but  fairly  done 
so,  however,  when  some  of  the  ship's  crew  perceived 
a  number  of  men  lying  on  the  deck  of  the  ketch,  and, 
quick  to  take  alarm,  raised  the  warning  cry  of  "  Ameri- 
cano!" It  was  answered  by  the  flinging  of  grapnels 
and  Decatur's  ringing  cry  of  "Boarders  away!"  and 


40  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

in  an  instant  the  deck  of  the  Mastico  swarmed  with 
men  and  a  rush  was  made  for  the  frigate's  decks. 

The  Tripolitans,  taken  utterly  by  surprise,  made 
but  a  show  of  resistance,  and  in  ten  minutes  those 
that  survived  were  driven  overboard  and  the  frigate 
was  an  American  prize,  while  a  rocket  shot  high  into 
the  air  to  carry  the  tale  of  triumph  to  waiting  friends 
outside. 

No  thought  was  entertained  of  getting  the  frigate 
off.  That  was  impossible,  and  preparations  had  been 
made  to  burn  her  where  she  lay.  Combustibles  were 
rapidly  spread  and  set  on  fire  by  eager  hands.  Mid- 
shipman Charles  Morris,  who  had  been  the  first  to 
board  the  vessel,  led  the  party  that  fired  the  cockpit, 
the  lowest  point  that  could  be  reached,  but  so  rapidly 
did  the  flames  shoot  up  on  the  decks  above  that  he 
and  his  men  had  barely  time  to  escape. 

Into  the  ketch  now  leaped  the  boarders,  Decatur 
the  last  to  leave.  The  Mastico  was  in  danger  from 
the  quick-leaping  flames,  but  quick  blows  of  an  axe 
severed  the  ropes  and  she  was  got  safely  off,  while 
the  crew,  running  out  the  great  oars,  began  to  sweep 
their  craft  seaward  as  the  flaring  fire  ran  up  the  rig- 
ging of  the  Philadelphia  to  the  mast-head  and  gleamed 
far  and  wide  over  the  bay. 

The  Tripolitans,  as  soon  as  they  had  recovered  from 
their  consternation,  ran  to  their  guns,  but  their  shot 
went  wide,  and  the  little  vessel  passed  on  unharmed. 
As  the  heat  increased  the  guns  of  the  frigate  began  to 
add  their  peals  to  those  of  the  forts;  at  length  the 
magazine  was  reached,  the  great  hull  burst  open  with 
a  frightful  roar,  and  the  fragments  of  the  Philadelphia 
were  hurled  far  over  the  waters  of  the  bay. 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  41 

Of  the  Americans,  not  one  lost  his  life.  Escaping 
safely  from  the  harbor,  they  reached  their  consort,  the 
Siren,  whose  crew  greeted  them  with  welcoming 
cheers.  And  thus  ended  what  Lord  Nelson  is  said 
to  have  called  "  the  most  bold  and  daring  act  of  the 
age."  Decatur  was  made  a  captain  and  presented 
with  a  sword  by  Congress,  and  all  that  took  part  were 
rewarded  for  their  share  in  the  bold  exploit. 

The  remainder  of  the  year  1804  was  marked  by 
various  efforts  to  take  the  city  of  Tripoli,  a  fierce  fight 
between  gunboats  taking  place  on  August  3,  while 
soon  afterwards  a  disastrous  event  occurred.  The 
ketch  Mastico,  or  the  Intrepid,  as  she  had  been  re- 
named, was  prepared  as  a  fire-ship  and  sent  into  port 
with  the  hope  of  causing  ravage  among  its  shipping. 
The  attempt  was  made  on  the  night  of  September  4, 
but  from  some  unfortunate  cause  the  ketch  blew  up 
with  all  on  board,  not  a  soul  of  them  escaping.  In 
the  end  the  bashaw,  alarmed  by  an  insurrection  in 
his  own  dominions,  consented  to  yield  all  his  prisoners 
for  a  ransom  of  sixty  thousand  dollars  and  nevermore 
to  trouble  American  commerce.  The  terms  were  ac- 
cepted and  peace  ensued.  Tunis  was  next  brought 
to  terms  under  the  guns  of  the  American  fleet,  and 
for  the  time  all  trouble  with  the  Barbary  states  was 
at  an  end. 

At  a  later  date  trouble  with  them  recommenced. 
Algiers  took  advantage  of  the  war  with  Great  Britain 
to  renew  its  depredations  on  the  commerce  of  the 
United  States,  and  in  May,  1815,  Decatur  reached  the 
Mediterranean  with  a  squadron  sent  to  bring  the 
Algerians  to  terms.  He  captured  two  of  their  war- 
vessels,  and  in  June  the  Dey  of  Algiers  was  glad  to 


42  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

sign  a  treaty  of  peace,  in  which  he  agreed  to  release 
all  captives,  make  indemnity  for  past  captures,  give 
up  forever  all  claim  on  the  United  States  for  tribute 
or  presents,  and  in  the  future  not  io  make  slaves  of 
prisoners  of  war.  Decatur  next  visited  Tunis  and 
Tripoli  and  forced  from  them  an  agreement  to  observe 
their  former  treaties.  This  ended  the  piratical  career 
of  the  Barbary  states,  which  had  existed  for  centuries, 
and  which  the  United  States  were  more  instrumental 
than  any  other  nation  in  bringing  to  a  close. 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE  SECOND  WAR  WITH   GREAT   BRITAIN. 

THE  depredations  on  American  commerce,  which 
had  given  rise  to  the  naval  war  with  France,  did  not 
cease  with  its  close.  Napoleon  was  then  pursuing  his 
remarkable  career  of  victory,  Great  Britain  was  op- 
posing him  with  bitter  energy,  and  the  commerce  of 
neutral  nations  suffered  wherever  they  ventured  to 
oppose  the  will  of  these  two  great  combatants.  Ships 
bound  to  ports  under  the  control  of  one  were  liable 
to  seizure  by  the  war-vessels  of  the  other,  and  America 
lost  so  heavily  on  both  sides  that  it  became  a  question 
with  which  country  she  should  finally  declare  war. 
Napoleon  had  treated  American  merchants  with  the 
basest  perfidy  and  robbed  them  mercilessly.  But  he 
confined  his  attacks  to  the  wealth  of  this  country,  while 
his  opponent  attacked  its  honor  as  well.  It  was  the 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  43 

doctrine  of  the  "  right  of  search"  that  finally  brought 
America  and  Great  Britain  into  war. 

In  the  attempt  to  impress  seamen  claimed  to  be  of 
British  birth  from  American  ships,  decision  in  which 
was  left  to  the  arbitrary  power  of  naval  officers,  thou- 
sands of  American  citizens  were  taken  and  forced  to 
serve  in  British  war-vessels.  The  arrogance  of  the 
British  in  this  system  of  seizure  reached  its  climax  in 
1807,  when  an  American  war-ship,  the  Chesapeake, 
while  wholly  unprepared  for  action,  was  fired  into  by 
a  British  frigate,  the  Leopard,  and  forced  to  submit 
to  being  boarded  by  a  pressrgang  and  robbed  of  sev- 
eral of  her  crew,  among  them  three  of  American  birth. 
In  1811  another  example  of  arrogance  was  given,  this 
time  with  a  different  termination.  The  British  cor- 
vette Little  Belt,  being  hailed  from  the  deck  of  the 
frigate  President,  replied  by  a  cannon  shot,  the  ball 
striking  the  mainmast  of  the  President.  A  shot  in 
return  called  out  a  broadside  from  the  Briton.  And 
now  for  some  fifteen  minutes  the  President  poured 
iron  arguments  into  the  insolent  corvette,  quite  curing 
her  of  her  eagerness  to  fight.  It  was  the  first  blow 
against  the  rapacity  of  the  press-gang.  Another  was 
dealt  when  the  Constitution,  lying  in  a  British  port, 
gave  refuge  to  a  deserter  who  claimed  American  birth, 
showed  her  teeth  to  two  frigates  who  sought  to  take 
him  from  her  deck,  and  sailed  off  with  him  in  triumph. 

The  natural  result  of  this  strained  condition  of 
affairs  came  on  June  18,  1812,  when  war  with  Great 
Britain  was  declared  by  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States.  The  conflict  that  followed  was  remarkable 
in  one  particular,— that  of  showing  the  unlooked-for 
fighting  power  of  American  ships  and  American 


44  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

sailors  when  matched  against  the  boasted  rulers  of 
the  wave.  It  is  with  the  naval  exploits  of  this  war 
that  we  are  here  concerned. 

There  was  little  room  for  confidence  in  American 
naval  power  at  that  date.  Numerous  gunboats  for 
harbor  defence  had  been  hastily  prepared,  but  this 
country  possessed  only  fifteen  war-vessels  fit  for  ser- 
vice at  sea,  mounted  with  about  four  hundred  guns. 
Against  these  Great  Britain  could  show  one  thousand 
and  forty-eight  ships  with  twenty-seven  thousand 
eight  hundred  guns,  and  of  these  ships  more  than  one 
hundred  were  soon  on  our  coast,  twelve  of  them  being 
seventy-four-gun  ships  of  the  line.  It  was  not  in  the 
number  of  her  ships  alone  that  our  antagonist  placed 
confidence,  but  in  their  record  as  well.  They  had  long 
been  paramount  upon  the  seas  of  Europe.  They  had 
destroyed  the  navy  of  Denmark  at  Copenhagen. 
Under  Nelson  they  had  won  undying  glory  at  Aboukir 
and  Trafalgar  Bay.  The  navies  of  France  and  Spain 
had  proved  helpless  before  them.  The  Dutch  and  the 
Russians  alike  feared  to  try  conclusions  with  them. 
They  were  the  acknowledged  lords  of  the  sea,  and 
crossed  the  ocean  with  the  full  expectation  of  teach- 
ing the  Americans  a  lesson  to  be  long  remembered. 
To  their  utter  consternation,  the  lesson  took  the  oppo- 
site form.  Brave  as  the  British  captains  and  crews 
undoubtedly  were,  over-confidence  had  made  them 
careless  in  discipline  and  the  arts  of  seamanship,  and 
they  were  destined  to  lose  their  proud  pre-eminence 
upon  the  seas. 

The  success  of  the  Americans  was  due  to  the  su- 
perior character  of  their  ships,  the  higher  discipline 
of  their  crews,  and  the  better  service  of  their  guns. 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  45 

Their  cannon  were  heavier,  and  every  shot  told. 
While  the  British  gunners  fired  largely  at  random, 
the  American  guns  were  sighted  and  every  ball  went 
straight  to  its  mark.  And  the  men  were  trained  in  a 
manner  far  superior  to  that  of  the  British  seamen 
of  that  day.  As  a  consequence,  only  two  or  three 
American  ships  of  war  were  captured,  by  antagonists 
of  equal  strength,  throughout  the  war,  while  many 
of  the  best  British  war-ships  were  sent  triumphantly 
into  port  or  despatched  to  the  bottom  of  the  seas. 

The  first  event  which  we  need  record  in  this  war 
was  the  capture  of  the  corvette  Alert  by  the  American 
frigate  Essex,  Captain  Porter.  This  fight  lasted  but 
eight  minutes.  The  Alert  was  much  the  weaker  of 
the  two,  and  our  only  purpose  in  mentioning  it  is  to 
record  the  fact  that  David  G.  Farragut,  the  naval  hero 
of  the  Civil  War,  was  a  midshipman  on  the  Essex, 
and  that  it  is  to  his  journal  we  are  indebted  for  our 
account  of  the  affair.  He  was  then  a  boy  of  less  than 
twelve  years  of  age. 

It  is  to  the  Constitution,  however,  that  we  owe  the 
first  great  triumph  of  the  American  fleet.  This  ship, 
under  Captain  Isaac  Hull,  began  her  career  in  the 
war  by  a  famous  escape  from  a  British  squadron  on 
the  Jersey  coast.  Pursued  by  five  frigates,  the  wind 
most  of  the  time  so  light  that  progress  was  to  be  made 
only  by  towing,  for  three  days,  from  July  17  to  20, 
the  Yankee  ship  managed  to  keep  just  out  of  gunshot 
of  her  eager  pursuers,  until  finally  she  succeeded  in 
dropping  them  below  the  horizon  and  the  squadron 
gave  up  the  pursuit  in  despair. 

A  month  afterwards,  on  August  19,  the  Constitu- 
tion met  one  of  her  late  pursuers,  the  Guerriere,  and 


46  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

now,  with  but  a  single  antagonist  to  deal  with,  the 
Constitution  played  a  different  role.  The  two  ships 
were  well  matched  in  strength  and  the  crews  in  cour- 
age, yet  in  thirty  minutes  from  the  time  the  Consti- 
tution fired  her  first  broadside  the  Guerriere  lay  a 
helpless  wreck  on  the  waters  and  her  flag  was  down. 
All  her  masts  were  gone,  her  hull  was  like  a  sieve,  and 
more  than  a  fourth  of  her  crew  were  dead  or  wounded, 
while  the  Constitution  was  little  the  worse  for  the 
fight  and  had  lost  but  fourteen  men.  The  difference 
was  due  to  the  far  superior  gunnery  of  the  American 
crew.  The  Guerriere  was  past  being  taken  into  port 
and  was  set  on  fire,  the  explosion  of  her  magazine  as 
she  sank  heralding  the  end  of  British  supremacy  upon 
the  sea. 

The  news  of  this  battle  had  an  amazing  effect.  The 
admiralty  of  Great  Britain  was  utterly  confounded  at 
the  result,  while  all  Europe  was  startled  to  learn  that 
in  so  short  a  time  an  American  ship  had  utterly  de- 
molished, almost  without  harm  to  herself,  one  of  the 
boasted  rulers  of  the  wave.  It  was  one  of  the  most 
striking  events  in  all  naval  history,  and  the  people 
beyond  the  Atlantic  awoke  to  the  fact  that  they  had  a 
new  power  to  deal  with  in  the  young  republic  of  the 
western  world.  As  for  the  people  of  America,  they 
simply  went  wild  with  joy. 

The  lesson  thus  taught  was  soon  reinforced  with 
others  of  the  same  kind.  On  October  18  the  sloop 
of  war  Wasp,  Captain  Jones,  met  the  British  brig 
Frolic  in  a  high  wind  off  Cape  Hatteras.  Despite  the 
fact  that  the  ships  were  rolling  and  pitching  in  a  heavy 
sea,  a  battle  began.  Most  of  the  British  shot  went 
high,  carrying  away  the  upper  spars  of  the  Wasp; 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  47 

but  her  guns,  carefully  sighted  and  fired  at  the  right 
moment,  played  havoc  with  the  Frolic's  hull.  At 
length  the  two  ships  came  together  with  a  crash  and 
boarders  from  the  Wasp  sprang  upon  the  Frolic's 
deck.  Only  four  men  were  in  sight,  three  of  them 
wounded,  while  water  reddened  with  blood  swashed 
about  the  deck.  The  leader  of  the  boarding  party 
himself  hauled  down  the  flag.  America  gained  noth- 
ing materially  from  this  victory,  for  the  little  Wasp 
and  her  prize  were  soon  after  taken  by  a  British 
seventy-four,  the  Poictiers.  But  the  moral  gain  was 
immense,  and  the  British  alarm  and  amazement  at 
American  prowess  grew  greater  than  before. 

The  next  triumph  took  place  on  October  25,  1812, 
when  the  frigate  United  States,  under  Captain  Stephen 
Decatur,  while  cruising  between  the  Azores  and  the 
Canaries,  met  the  British  frigate  Macedonian.  It  will 
suffice  to  say  of  this  conflict  that  after  an  hour's  fight 
the  Macedonian  was  a  helpless  wreck,  while  the 
United  States  showed  little  injury  from  the  battle.  She 
had  lost  but  eleven  men  in  killed  and  wounded,  while 
the  Macedonian  had  lost  more  than  a  hundred  of  her 
crew.  The  result,  as  before,  appears  to  have  been  due 
to  the  comparative  skill  in  gunnery,  the  hull  of  the 
British  ship  being  pierced  by  more  than  one  hundred 
shots,  while  the  American  ship  received  but  three  in 
return. 

On  December  29  the  Constitution,  now  under  Com- 
modore Bainbridge,  won  a  second  victory,  this  time 
over  the  British  frigate  Java,  off  the  coast  of  Brazil. 
At  two  o'clock  the  firing  began,  the  British  gunners 
firing  wild,  the  Americans  with  careful  aim.  At  four 
o'clock  the  Java  had  lost  nearly  all  her  masts,  while  the 


48  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

Constitution  had  every  spar  in  place.  As  for  the  hull 
of  the  Java,  it  was  so  riddled  as  to  make  it  impossible 
to  bring  her  into  port,  and  she  was  set  on  fire  on  the 
closing  day  of  1812.  In  six  months  the  American 
frigates  had  taken  five  British  men-of-war,  while  not 
a  ship  had  been  lost  from  the  small  navy  of  the  repub- 
lic. Not  in  twenty  years  of  its  history  had  the  British 
navy  suffered  such  a  series  of  defeats  as  in  these  mo- 
mentous six  months. 

A  sixth  American  victory  came  on  February  24, 
1813,  when  the  sloop  of  war  Hornet  encountered  the 
brig  Peacock  off  the  mouth  of  the  Demerara  River, 
South  America.  The  vessels  were  not  unfairly 
matched  in  size  and  armament,  yet  so  swift  and  sure 
was  the  Yankee  fire  that  in  fourteen  minutes  the  Pea- 
cock's flag  came  down,  her  hull  being  so  riddled  that 
before  all  the  crew  could  be  taken  off  she  sank. 

And  now  came  a  reverse  to  this  tale  of  triumph. 
Captain  Lawrence  of  the  Hornet  was  rewarded  for  his 
victory  by  being  transferred  to  the  frigate  Chesapeake, 
which  on  June  i,  with  a  newly  shipped  and  undisci- 
plined crew,  sailed  from  Boston  to  try  conclusions 
with  the  British  frigate  Shannon,  then  hovering  out- 
side. The  battle  was  a  brief  one.  Captain  Broke  of 
the  Shannon  had  profited  by  the  story  of  American 
warfare,  and  had  trained  his  men  carefully  at  the  guns. 
The  crew  of  the  Chesapeake  were  without  training 
and  experience.  And  shortly  after  the  first  broadside 
Captain  Lawrence  was  mortally  wounded,  and  was 
carried  below,  saying,  "  Tell  the  men  to  fire  faster,  and 
not  give  up  the  ship" 

In  ten  minutes  after  the  battle  opened  the  two  ships 
drifted  together,  and  Captain  Broke,  followed  by  a 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  49 

boarding  party,  sprang  upon  the  Chesapeake's  deck. 
A  sharp  but  brief  fight  followed,  and  in  fifteen  minutes 
from  the  beginning  of  the  conflict  the  Chesapeake  was 
a  British  prize.  She  was  taken  into  Halifax,  Captain 
Lawrence,  in  a  delirium,  constantly  repeating  his  last 
order,  "  Don't  give  up  the  ship."  He  died  before  Hali- 
fax was  reached.  This  ended  the  most  serious  reverse 
of  the  American  navy  during  the  war,  a  result  hailed 
in  England  with  as  extravagant  a  joy  as  if  a  victory 
by  a  British  ship  was  an  unheard-cf  event. 

There  was  one  more  victory  of  the  British  arms  in 
1813  that  may  be  here  recorded.  It  was  won  over  the 
little  sixteen-gun  ship  Argus,  Captain  Allen,  which 
had  sailed  from  New  York  to  France,  and  on  July 
14  left  L'Orient  for  a  cruise  in  the  English  Chan- 
nel, in  emulation  of  the  career  of  the  famous  Paul 
Jones.  The  seas  here  swarmed  with  merchantmen, 
and  prizes  were  taken  in  numbers,  some  of  these  being 
sunk  and  some  burned,  while  a  few  of  the  more  valu- 
able were  sent  to  French  ports.  In  a  month's  time 
twenty  ships,  valued  at  $2,500,000,  fell  victims  to  the 
Argus.  Her  fate  came  on  August  14,  when  the  British 
brig  Pelican  sought  and  found  her  off  the  harbor  of 
Cork.  The  captain  of  the  Argus  was  mortally  wounded 
by  the  first  broadside;  his  lieutenant  met  the  same 
fate  four  minutes  afterwards,  and  the  ship,  unmanage- 
able from  injuries  to  her  rigging,  was  scarcely  able  to 
reply  with  a  gun  to  the  broadsides  of  her  opponent. 
The  flag  was  therefore  hauled  down  and  the  British 
gained  their  second  prize. 

Of  all  American  vessels  of  war,  the  one  with  the 
most  unceasing  run  of  good  fortune  was  the  Enter- 
prise. Launched  in  1800  and  rigged  as  a  schooner, 

4 


50  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

she  had  been  sent  to  the  West  Indies  to  search  for 
French  privateers,  of  which  she  soon  captured  eight, 
one  of  them,  L' Agile,  a  larger  and  better-armed  vessel 
than  herself,  after  a  sharply  contested  battle.  A  year 
later  she  captured  the  Tripoli  and  the  Mastico  in  the 
Mediterranean  war,  as  already  described.  In  1812 
her  rig  was  changed,  she  being  converted  into  a  brig, 
and  losing  speed  in  consequence.  She  was  sent  out 
in  search  of  privateers,  in  which  she  had  much  success, 
and  on  September  4,  1813,  when  near  Portland,  Maine, 
came  in  sight  of  a  brig  that  bore  every  appearance  of 
being  a  man-of-war. 

Lieutenant  Burrows  stood  off  shore  to  get  sea-room, 
at  the  same  time  cutting  one  of  his  stern  windows  into 
a  port  that  would  take  one  of  his  long  guns,  much  to 
the  dissatisfaction  of  his  crew,  who  thought  he  pro- 
posed to  run  away.  They  did  not  know  their  com- 
mander, who  had  been  but  three  days  on  board.  The 
offing  gained,  he  wore  and  ran  for  his  enemy,  both 
ships  firing  broadsides  at  the  same  time.  The  battle 
began  at  three  P.M.  At  3.45  a  British  officer  shouted 
that  they  had  surrendered,  but  could  not  haul  down 
their  flags  as  all  of  them  were  nailed  to  the  masts. 
Both  commanders  were  killed,  and  the  Boxer,  which 
proved  to  be  the  name  of  the  British  ship,  had  suffered 
severely  in  the  fight.  The  Enterprise  was  little  the 
worse  for  the  enemy's  guns,  though  the  ships  had 
been  very  evenly  matched. 

In  her  subsequent  history  the  good  fortune  of  the 
Enterprise  continued.  Slow  as  she  was,  she  made 
several  successful  runs  from  British  frigates,  and  came 
through  the  war  unharmed.  She  was  sent  to  the 
Mediterranean  during  the  war  with  Algiers,  took  part 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  51 

in  the  war  with  the  West  India  pirates,  and  perished 
at  last  of  sheer  old  age,  without  having  known  a  re- 
verse. 

There  is  but  one  more  naval  event  of  1813  of  which 
we  need  speak,  that  of  the  battle  of  Lake  Erie,  the 
first  conflict  of  two  fleets  in  American  history  with 
the  exception  of  that  between  Arnold  and  Carleton  on 
Lake  Champlain  in  the  Revolutionary  War.  In  the 
first  year  of  the  war  the  British  commanded  the  great 
lakes,  and  were  enabled  by  the  aid  of  their  ships  to 
hold  Detroit  and  control  the  northwest.  In  the  spring 
of  1813  Captain  Oliver  H.  Perry  was  sent  to  contend 
for  the  mastery  of  these  waters.  Some  progress  had 
been  made  in  ship-building  at  Erie,  and  in  a  remark- 
ably brief  time  he  had  built  two  new  vessels,  convert- 
ing forest  trees  rapidly  into  ships.  With  great  diffi- 
culty he  obtained  men  and  arms  for  these  and  some 
others  he  had  found  on  the  lake,  and  in  August  sailed 
with  his  small  fleet  in  search  of  the  enemy.  But  the 
British  were  refitting,  and  it  was  not  until  September 
10  that  the  two  fleets  met,  there  floating  at  the  mast- 
head of  Perry's  flag-ship,  the  Lawrence,  a  flag  with 
the  famous  words  of  the  brave  Captain  Lawrence, 
"  Don't  give  up  the  ship!" 

The  fleets  were  fairly  well  matched  in  strength,  and 
were  fought  with  equal  courage  and  resolution,  both 
sides  suffering  severely.  The  Lawrence,  which  kept 
in  the  thick  of  the  fight,  was  in  time  converted  into  a 
wreck,  with  but  fourteen  men  unhurt  on  her  decks. 
Meanwhile,  the  Niagara,  which  had  for  some  unknown 
reason  kept  out  of  the  battle  during  these  two  hours' 
fight,  now  came  up  fresh  and  unhurt.  Perry  at  once, 
with  the  quickness  of  genius,  sprang  into  a  boat  and 


52  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

had  himself  rowed  through  a  hot  British  fire  to  this 
welcome  ship.  Hoisting  his  flag  on  her,  he  sailed 
through  the  British  fleet,  firing  broadsides  right  and 
left  into  their  battered  ships.  In  fifteen  minutes  more 
the  victory  was  his,  and  he  was  able  to  send  out  his 
famous  despatch,  "  We  have  met  the  enemy  and  they 
are  ours." 

Two  victories  of  British  arms  have  been  mentioned. 
A  third  remains  to  be  told,  though  it  was  one  in  which 
an  American  ship  succumbed  to  superior  force.  The 
Essex,  the  smallest  of  the  American  frigates,  whose 
capture  of  the  Alert  has  been  spoken  of,  sought  the 
Pacific  in  1813,  where  many  captures  of  British 
whalers  and  other  vessels  were  made.  Captain  David 
Porter,  the  father  of  Admiral  Porter  of  the  Civil  War, 
was  in  command,  and  among  her  officers  was,  as  we 
have  said,  the  youthful  midshipman  David  G.  Farra- 
gut.  The  exploits  of  the  Essex  during  her  year's 
cruise  in  the  Pacific  may  be  passed  over  and  our  nar- 
rative be  confined  to  the  story  of  the  end  of  her  career. 

Early  in  1814  she  had  sought  the  harbor  of  Valpa- 
raiso, and  here  on  March  28  she  was  attacked  by  two 
British  ships,  the  frigate  Phoebe,  alone  outmatching 
the  Essex,  and  the  Cherub,  mounting  thirty  guns. 
And  the  British  had  a  further  advantage,  in  the  Essex 
having  lost  her  maintop-mast  and  in  the  battle  being 
fought  at  long  range,  which  the  superior  sailing-power 
of  the  British  enabled  them  to  keep.  The  main  bat- 
tery of  the  Essex  was  of  short  thirty-twos,  of  small 
range,  and  she  had  but  six  guns  of  long  carrying 
power  as  opposed  to  seventeen  on  the  gun-decks  of 
her  foes.  The  result  was  that  most  of  her  battery 
was  useless,  while  every  shot  of  her  antagonists  told. 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  53 

Yet  with  these  disadvantages  she  made  a  gallant  fight, 
continuing  it  for  two  hours  and  a  half,  at  the  end  of 
which  time  she  was  reduced  to  a  floating  wreck,  nearly 
three-fourths  of  her  crew  were  killed  or  wounded,  and 
she  was  in  flames  below.  Never  had  a  flag  been 
lowered  after  a  more  gallant  struggle  for  victory. 

We  have  now  some  further  triumphs  of  American 
ships  to  recount.  On  April  28,  1814,  the  corvette 
Peacock,  a  newly  built  vessel,  under  Captain  War- 
rington,  met  the  British  brig  Epervier  off  the  Florida 
coast.  The  vessels  were  fairly  well  matched  and  the 
fight  was  sharp,  but  the  Epervier  was  so  severely 
punished  that  in  forty-five  minutes  she  lowered  her 
flag,  her  rigging  being  shot  away  and  her  hull  so 
riddled  that  there  were  five  feet  of  water  in  her  hold. 

In  May,  1814,  the  Wasp,  Captain  Johnston  Blake- 
ley,  a  new  sloop  of  war,  the  third  vessel  of  that  name 
in  the  American  navy,  crossed  the  ocean  to  the  waters 
of  Great  Britain.  Here,  on  June  28,  she  encountered 
the  British  brig-sloop  Reindeer,  which  was  forced  to 
strike  her  colors  after  a  half-hour's  fight,  the  captain 
being  dead  and  the  vessel  in  such  a  condition  that  she 
could  not  be  carried  into  port,  and  was  fired  and  blown 
up  the  next  day. 

On  September  i  the  Wasp  came  within  sight  of  a 
convoy  of  merchantmen  guarded  by  a  British  seventy- 
four,  yet  she  managed  to  cut  out  and  burn  one  of  the 
ships  and  escape  pursuit.  The  same  day  she  sighted 
four  vessels,  three  of  them  of  the  same  class  as  the 
Reindeer,  and  the  fourth  a  merchantman  which  they 
had  recaptured  from  an  American  privateer.  As  these 
were  somewhat  widely  separated,  one  of  them  being 
in  chase  of  the  privateer,  the  Wasp  dashed  for  the 


54  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

nearest,  and  in  about  an  hour  had  forced  her  to  lower 
her  flag.  She  did  not  take  possession  of  her  prize, 
however,  as  two  other  British  ships  were  fast  coming 
up.  But  she  had  done  her  work  so  thoroughly  that 
the  Avon  went  to  the  bottom  just  as  her  consorts  had 
taken  off  the  last  of  her  crew.  That  was  the  final 
triumph  of  the  Wasp.  She  went  down  herself  in  a 
storm  at  sea  before  the  end  of  the  year. 

The  history  of  the  war  records  another  lake  con- 
flict, a  battle  of  squadrons  on  Lake  Champlain,  with 
as  fortunate  a  result  for  the  Americans  as  that  on  Lake 
Erie.  Its  result  was  of  the  highest  importance,  since 
it  put  an  end  to  a  purpose  of  invading  the  States  by 
way  of  Lakes  Champlain  and  George,  having  thus  the 
same  effect  as  Arnold's  defeat.  The  British  proposed 
to  send  a  fleet  of  considerable  strength  to  accompany 
the  land  forces,  and  Lieutenant  Thomas  Macdonough, 
naval  commander  on  the  American  side,  gathered  a 
fleet  in  defence,  one  of  these,  the  brig  Surprise  (later 
named  the  Eagle),  being  built  in  the  brief  interval  of 
nineteen  days.  The  fleet  comprised  fourteen  vessels 
in  all,  of  which  ten  were  gunboats.  Their  crews  num- 
bered eight  hundred  and  eighty-two  men,  and  their 
armament  eighty-six  guns.  The  British  fleet  was  not 
greatly  different  in  strength. 

The  battle,  which  took  place  September  n,  1814, 
was  not  one  of  manoeuvres  in  open  water,  like  that 
of  Lake  Erie.  Macdonough's  vessels  were  anchored 
in  Plattsburg  Bay,  in  a  position  that  hindered  the 
British  fleet  from  passing  down  the  lake  without  fight- 
ing its  way,  and  so  arranged  that  they  could  wear 
round  and  use  both  broadsides  in  the  battle.  We 
have  not  space  to  describe  the  varied  evolutions  of  the 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  55 

conflict,  and  must  content  ourselves  with  saying  that 
after  a  vigorously  contested  fight  one  British  flag  after 
another  came  down,  until  the  whole  fleet  with  the  ex- 
ception of  the  gunboats,  which  escaped  by  flight,  was 
in  American  hands. 

The  victory  ended  the  ambitious  scheme  of  inva- 
sion. The  British  army  had  been  stationed  where 
the  battle  of  the  ships  was  in  full  view,  and  at  its  end 
Sir  George  Prevost,  the  commander,  fled  in  a  panic, 
leading  his  army  back  in  all  haste  to  Canada  and  aban- 
doning immense  stores.  He  is  said  to  have  died  after- 
wards from  chagrin  at  this  exhibition  of  cowardice. 
His  army  had  embraced  twelve  thousand  of  Welling- 
ton's veteran  soldiers. 

A  treaty  of  peace  was  signed  at  Ghent,  December 
24,  1814.  But  those  were  not  the  days  of  ocean  cables 
and  land  telegraphs,  and  news  of  this  event  spread  so 
slowly  that  the  war  drifted  on  into  1815,  one  land 
battle,  that  of  New  Orleans,  and  several  naval  battles 
being  fought  in  the  early  months  of  that  year. 

The  first  of  these  sea-fights  had  to  do  with  the 
frigate  President,  then  commanded  by  Stephen  Deca- 
tur,  and  whose  history  had  been  one  of  continued  ill- 
fortune.  On  January  14,  1815,  she  left  New  York 
for  a  cruise,  and  in  crossing  the  bar  at  Sandy  Hook 
struck  the  sand  and  lay  pounding  there  until  she  had 
fairly  "broken  her  back."  Warped  out  of  her  fair 
shape,  she  put  to  sea,  where  she  kept  her  reputation 
for  ill  luck  by  sailing  into  the  midst  of  the  British 
blockading  squadron,  which  Decatur  had  hoped  to 
elude.  This  consisted  of  four  frigates. 

Decatur  tried  to  find  safety  in  flight,  but  finding 
himself  outsailed  he  turned  on  the  Endymion,  hoping 


56  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

to  take  her  by  boarding.  The  wary  Briton,  however, 
kept  away,  and  a  sharp  battle  ensued  in  which  the 
Endymion  was  fairly  whipped,  her  fire  being  entirely 
stopped.  But  the  President  was  also  seriously  crip- 
pled, and  her  renewed  effort  to  escape  was  checked 
by  the  other  frigates,  to  which,  after  a  broadside  from 
the  Pomone,  she  was  forced  to  haul  down  her  flag. 

A  different  story  comes  from  the  Constitution,  the 
"  Old  Ironsides,"  so  called  before  it  was  conjectured 
that  the  term  "  Ironsides"  would  in  time  come  to  apply 
to  war-ships  in  general.  On  February  20,  1815,  when 
about  one  hundred  and  eighty  miles  from  Madeira, 
she  sighted  two  sails,  which  proved  to  be  the  small 
British  frigate  Cyane  and  the  ship-rigged  sloop  of 
war  Levant.  Captain  Charles  Stewart  was  in  com- 
mand of  the  Constitution,  and  at  once  gave  chase, 
soon  coming  up  with  the  foe.  The  three  ships  now 
prepared  for  battle,  and  for  several  hours  the  seas  re- 
verberated with  the  roar  of  guns.  The  Constitution 
opened  fire  at  6.10  P.M.,  and  at  6.50  the  Cyane  lowered 
her  flag.  The  Levant,  which  had  sailed  away  from 
too  hot  a  fire,  was  now  followed  and  brought  to  bay, 
and  at  8.50  she  also  became  a  prize.  The  "  Old  Iron- 
sides," which  had  begun  the  war  with  the  capture  of 
the  Guerriere,  ended  it  with  this  signal  triumph  over 
two  antagonists. 

There  is  an  escape  of  the  Constitution  with  her 
prizes  still  to  be  recorded.  On  March  10,  as  they 
lay  in  the  harbor  of  Porto  Praya,  Cape  Verde,  three 
large  British  frigates  were  seen  coming  in.  Either  of 
them  was  more  than  a  match  for  the  Constitution,  and 
Stewart  at  once  put  out  from  port,  manoeuvring  so 
skilfully  that  he  carried  his  ship  and  the  Cyane  out  of 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  57 

reach.  The  Levant  was  driven  back  into  port  and 
recaptured,  after  her  pursuers  had  fired  a  number  of 
broadsides  at  her  without  a  shot  touching  her  hull. 

We  have  said  that  the  Constitution  ended  the  war. 
This  is  not  quite  the  case,  since  a  sea  fight  on  a  smaller 
scale  took  place  as  late  as  March  23,  at  the  far  Southern 
island  group  of  Tristan  d'Acunha,  where  lay  the  little 
sloop  of  war  Hornet.  The  British  brig-sloop  Penguin 
had  been  sent  there  in  search  of  a  privateer,  but  found 
the  Hornet  instead,  and,  after  a  fight  of  twenty  minutes 
in  length,  surrendered.  It  was  time,  for  she  was  re- 
duced to  a  wreck. 

Nothing  has  been  said  here  of  the  doings  of  pri- 
vateers in  this  war,  yet  much  might  be  said,  for 
they  were  numerous  and  by  no  means  confined  their 
attention  to  unarmed  merchantmen.  The  perils  of 
seizure  to  which  American  merchant  vessels  were  ex- 
posed before  the  war,  with  the  gains  to  be  made 
from  successful  voyages  in  consequence  of  the  high 
rates  of  freight  prevailing,  had  given  rise  to  a  class  of 
vessels  specially  built  to  escape  pursuit.  Long,  nar- 
row, and  deep-keeled,  with  enormous  spars  that  car- 
ried a  great  cloud  of  canvas,  they  had  become  marvels 
of  speed,  and  swift  indeed  must  be  the  cruiser  that 
could  run  one  of  them  down  in  a  fair  chase.  They 
were  built  to  carry  large  crews,  and  little  change  was 
needed  to  convert  them  into  efficient  privateers,  other 
than  to  add  to  the  guns  that  most  of  them  carried  as 
security  from  the  West  India  pirates,  and  to  mount 
the  famous  "  Long  Tom"  of  the  period,  a  long,  thick- 
breeched  gun  that  could  throw  a  ball  of  twenty-four 
or  thirty-two  pounds'  weight  for  a  mile  or  more  of 
distance.  The  pilot-boats  also,  built  as  racers  and  to 


58  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

stand  all  weather,  were  easily  converted  into  privateers, 
and  the  Atlantic  soon  swarmed  with  these  alert  com- 
merce destroyers,  of  which  some  two  hundred  and 
fifty  were  commissioned  during  the  war.  One  of  their 
most  famous  captains  was  Joshua  Barney,  who  had 
been  made  a  lieutenant  in  the  American  navy  in  1776, 
at  seventeen  years  of  age,  and  who  commanded  the 
cruiser  Hyder  AH  when  she  overcame  the  much 
stronger  General  Monk. 

The  most  famous  exploit  of  a  privateer  took  place 
in  the  harbor  of  Fayal,  Azore  Islands,  on  the  night  of 
September  26,  1814.  Here  lay  the  General  Arm- 
strong, hailing  from  New  York,  and  here,  despite  the 
fact  that  it  was  a  neutral  port,  she  was  attacked  by 
the  boats  of  the  British  brig  Carnation,  the  frigate 
Rota,  and  the  liner  Plantagenet,  the  three  having 
caught  her  in  harbor.  All  night  long  the  fight  con- 
tinued, much  of  it  hand  to  hand,  but  the  eighty-eight 
tars  of  the  Armstrong  succeeded  in  fighting  off  their 
more  than  three  hundred  assailants,  killing  and  wound- 
ing far  more  than  the  total  number  of  their  own  crew, 
while  their  loss  was  very  small.  In  the  morning,  find- 
ing that  the  British  had  begun  to  fire  broadsides,  they 
scuttled  and  abandoned  their  vessel,  and  she  was  set 
on  fire  by  her  captors  and  destroyed. 

A  similar  fight  had  been  made  by  the  New  York 
privateer  Prince  de  Neufchatel,  which  was  attacked 
off  Nantucket,  October  u,  1814,  by  the  boats  of  the 
frigate  Endymion.  The  Prince  had  manned  so  many 
prizes  that  only  forty  of  her  crew  remained,  but  these 
fought  off  their  assailants,  sinking  one  large  boat  and 
capturing  another,  while  the  British  loss  in  killed  and 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  59 

wounded  was  not  less  than  ninety.  The  Prince  came 
safely  into  port. 

The  Baltimore  privateer  Chasseur  attacked  the 
British  war-schooner  St.  Lawrence,  mistaking  her  for 
a  merchantman.  But  the  discovery  of  his  mistake 
and  of  the  greater  strength  of  his  opponent  did  not 
check  the  fighting  spirit  of  Captain  Boyle,  and  in 
fifteen  minutes  from  the  beginning  of  the  attack  the 
St.  Lawrence  was  a  prize. 

During  the  war  the  American  privateers  are  said  to 
have  taken  and  sent  in  or  destroyed  about  sixteen 
hundred  British  vessels,  of  which  a  considerable  num- 
ber were  small  war-ships.  In  return  the  captures  by 
the  British  numbered  but  about  five  hundred.  In 
this  war,  in  which  the  army  record  was  in  great  meas- 
ure unfortunate,  the  navy  covered  itself  with  glory, 
and  taught  the  powers  of  Europe  that  the  sons  of  the 
Western  republic  had  no  superiors  upon  the  seas. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE  PIRATES  AND  THE  MEXICAN  WAR. 

ABOUT  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century 
piracy  became  active  in  the  West  Indies,  inspired  by 
the  long  wars  between  Great  Britain  and  France, 
during  which  the  latter  government  issued  letters  of 
marque  freely  to  lawless  men,  many  of  them  wretches 
utterly  unfit  to  be  intrusted  with  such  authority,  and 
who  entered  upon  careers  of  open  piracy,  making  the 


60  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

commerce  of  all  nations  except  France  their  prey,  and 
availing  themselves  of  the  French  islands  of  Guade- 
loupe and  Martinique  as  lurking-places.  The  British 
vigorously  attacked  these  pirate  broods,  and  finally, 
by  the  capture  of  Guadeloupe,  in  1810,  deprived  them 
of  their  last  place  of  shelter  in  that  region. 

From  the  West  Indies  they  sought  the  Gulf  coast 
of  the  United  States,  many  of  them  becoming  smug- 
glers, while  others  kept  to  their  old  calling,  finding 
new  haunts  in  the  bays  and  bayous  of  the  Louisiana 
coast  region.  Here  exists  a  broad  extent  of  low, 
flat  lands,  traversed  by  countless  water-courses,  with 
stretches  of  tall  marsh  grass  intervening,  and  deeply 
indented  with  bays,  whose  mouths  are  closed  by  long, 
narrow  islands.  The  whole  region  is  a  net-work  of 
lazy  bayous,  twisting  and  winding  interminably,  their 
multitude  of  islands  being  covered  with  bulrushes  and 
reeds  twelve  feet  high. 

Of  the  many  bays  of  the  coast,  the  pirates  chose  the 
one  known  as  Barataria  for  their  lurking-place,  and 
for  several  years  they  haunted  the  waters  of  the  Gulf, 
making  all  commerce  insecure.  The  difficulty  was 
added  to  by  the  condition  of  the  Spanish  colonies, 
several  of  which  were  in  revolt  against  the  mother 
country.  Of  these,  Venezuela  issued  letters  of  marque, 
and  many  of  the  pirates  posed  as  patriotic  privateers 
of  the  new  government.  The  notorious  Lafittes  of 
New  Orleans  became  in  time  the  leaders  of  the  pirate 
horde,  they  and  their  followers  gaining  impunity  when 
the  war  with  Great  Britain  tied  the  hands  of  the  Amer- 
ican authorities. 

Several  efforts  were  made  to  break  them  up,  but  in 
vain,  and  success  was  not  attained  until  1814.  On 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  61 

September  16  of  that  year  Commander  Patterson,  of 
the  navy,  attacked  their  haunt  with  a  small  fleet  of  six 
gunboats  and  a  schooner  convoying  six  barges  of 
troops.  Within  the  bay  ten  pirate  vessels  were  drawn 
up  to  receive  them.  But  the  corsairs  made  a  weak 
defence,  and  were  quickly  driven  ashore  from  their 
vessels,  two  of  which  were  burned  and  the  others  cap- 
tured. Most  of  the  pirates  were  taken  and  their  haunt 
was  effectually  broken  up. 

Among  those  who  escaped  were  the  two  Lafittes, 
and  these  afterwards  offered  their  aid  and  that  of  their 
followers  to  General  Jackson,  and  fought  bravely  in 
the  defence  of  New  Orleans.  Jean  Lafitte  in  the  end 
made  his  way  to  Texas,  where  he  resumed  his  piratical 
practices,  and  as  late  as  1822  his  name  was  the  terror 
of  the  Gulf.  Soon  after  the  United  States  fleet  swept 
those  waters  and  brought  the  career  of  the  buccaneers 
to  an  end.  What  became  of  Lafitte  remains  unknown. 

For  years  after  the  close  of  the  war  with  Great 
Britain  the  West  Indies  swarmed  with  pirates,  whose 
crews  may  have  been  added  to  from  the  privateersmen 
of  the  United  States.  To  many  of  the  baser  sort  of 
these  men  robbery  on  the  high  seas  had  become  a 
trade,  which  they  were  loath  to  abandon  at  the  cessa- 
tion of  the  war.  The  plundering  of  non-combatants 
under  process  of  law  was  followed  by  plundering  in 
defiance  of  law,  and  many  swift-sailing  vessels  haunted 
the  waters  of  the  West  Indies  and  the  Gulf,  ready  to 
take  a  rich  prize  wherever  found.  Those  seas  long 
continued  unsafe  to  honest  merchantmen.  Of  the 
craft  of  commerce  that  put  to  sea  with  valuable 
cargoes,  numbers  were  never  heard  of  again,  while 
many  others  had  thrilling  tales  to  tell  of  hot  pursuit 


62  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

by  and  narrow  escape  from  armed  vessels  flying  the 
black  flag  of  piracy. 

It  was  in  the  year  1819  that  the  government  of  this 
country  undertook  the  task  of  destroying  the  nests 
of  the  corsairs  in  the  West  India  waters.  The  com- 
mand of  the  fleet  detailed  for  this  purpose  was  as- 
signed to  Commodore  Perry,  the  hero  of  Lake  Erie. 
It  proved  an  unfortunate  service  for  him,  for,  while 
calling  at  Angostura,  then  the  capital  of  Venezuela, 
on  a  mission  to  learn  the  names  of  the  privateers  com- 
missioned by  that  republic,  he  was  seized  with  yellow 
fever,  from  which  he  soon  died.  With  his  death  the 
work  of  the  expedition  came  to  an  end  and  nothing 
further  was  attempted  until  1821. 

In  that  year  a  new  fleet  was  sent  out,  comprising 
the  sloop  of  war  Hornet  and  the  brig  Enterprise,  both 
flamous  for  their  exploits  in  the  late  war,  and  some 
smaller  vessels.  Several  of  the  piratical  craft  were 
captured,  and  in  1822  the  fleet  was  largely  increased, 
Commodore  James  Biddle  of  the  Macedonian  taking 
command.  Much  progress  was  now  made  in  the  work 
of  breaking  up  the  piratical  horde,  the  Shark,  under 
Captain  Matthew  C.  Perry,  afterwards  famous  for  the 
opening  of  Japan,  capturing  five  pirate  vessels  and 
aiding  in  the  capture  of  a  sixth. 

In  1823  Captain  David  Porter,  formerly  commander 
of  the  Essex,  was  placed  in  control  of  the  fleet,  to 
which  he  added  a  number  of  small  schooners  and 
barges,  fitted  to  follow  the  corsairs  into  their  haunts. 
With  him  came  his  former  midshipman,  Farragut, — 
not  yet  in  command  of  a  vessel.  Much  was  now  done 
in  the  work  of  breaking  up  the  pirate  resorts.  At 
Cape  Cruz  the  crews  of  the  Greyhound  and  Beagle 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  63 

captured  one  of  these  resorts  after  a  desperate  resist- 
ance, in  which  the  wife  of  the  pirate  captain  fought  by 
his  side  and  as  fiercely  as  himself.  In  the  caves  were 
found  bales  of  merchandise  and  heaps  of  human  bones 
that  told  a  terrible  story  of  robbery  and  murder.  In 
another  instance  two  barges  of  the  fleet,  carrying 
thirty-one  men,  chased  a  pirate  cruiser  and  barge  into 
a  bay,  and  dashed  among  the  sea-robbers,  over  seventy 
in  number,  with  such  intrepidity,  that  they  were  driven 
into  the  sea  and  the  most  of  them  killed  while  attempt- 
ing to  swim  to  land.  Among  the  killed  was  their 
captain,  known  as  Diabolito  ("little  devil"). 

Porter  was  subsequently  suspended  from  command, 
in  consequence  of  a  dispute  with  the  Porto  Rico  au- 
thorities, and  resigned  his  commission.  But  he  had 
practically  completed  his  work,  which  was  finished  in 
the  following  year.  Since  1824  the  black  flag  of 
piracy  has  not  been  seen  in  the  waters  of  the  West 
Indies  and  the  Gulf. 

The  dealings  of  the  United  States  with  the  Barbary 
pirates  were  described  in  the  last  chapter.  At  later 
dates  there  were  encounters  with  pirates  elsewhere, 
beginning  with  an  assault  by  the  Malays  of  Sumatra 
on  the  ship  Friendship  in  1831.  This  was  revenged 
in  1832  by  the  frigate  Potomac,  which  anchored  off 
Quallah  Battoo  disguised  as  a  merchantman,  and  at 
midnight  made  an  attack  on  the  Malay  forts.  The 
resistance  was  fierce,  even  the  women  fighting  with 
courage  and  skill,  but  in  the  end  the  natives  were  over- 
powered and  their  chief  fort  was  blown  up  with  its  own 
magazine.  In  1838  the  town  of  Quallah  Battoo  was 
again  bombarded  by  the  frigate  Columbia,  in  conse- 


64  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

quence  of  a  murderous  attack  made  by  the  natives  on 
the  crew  of  the  ship  Eclipse. 

In  1849  a  United  States  vessel  was  sent  to  the  coast 
of  Africa  to  aid  in  breaking  up  piracy  of  a  different 
kind, — that  of  the  slavers  who  had  long  plied  their  ne- 
farious trade  in  those  waters.  This  was  the  brig  Perry, 
under  Lieutenant  (afterwards  Admiral)  Andrew  H. 
Foote.  The  British  were  active  in  trying  to  break 
up  this  traffic,  and  for  two  years  the  Perry  was  kept 
busy  at  the  work,  capturing  several  American  vessels 
engaged  in  the  trade. 

In  1856  the  same  officer,  now  captain  of  the  Ports- 
mouth, became  engaged  in  more  warlike  work  in 
China.  Fighting  was  going  on  between  the  English 
and  Chinese,  and  Foote  was  there  for  the  purpose 
of  protecting  the  Americans  in  Canton.  On  Novem- 
ber 15,  while  he  was  rowing  past  one  of  the  forts  of 
the  city,  the  Chinese  fired  upon  him,  despite  the  fact 
that  the  American  flag  was  waved.  On  passing  a 
second  fort,  it  opened  on  him  with  grape-shot  at  close 
range.  On  the  next  day  the  Portsmouth  bombarded 
the  forts,  and  on  the  2oth  the  Portsmouth,  the  San 
Jacinto,  and  the  Levant  resumed  the  bombardment, 
and  landed  a  force  that  attacked  the  forts  by  land. 

The  first  fort,  a  massive  stone  structure  containing 
numerous  cannon,  was  quickly  taken,  and  its  guns  were 
turned  on  the  second,  whose  fire  was  soon  silenced. 
A  strong  force  that  marched  from  Canton  was  put  to 
flight  by  a  single  howitzer,  and  the  contest  did  not 
end  until  four  of  the  forts  had  been  taken.  After  this 
lesson  the  Americans  were  not  molested. 

In  1859,  however,  Captain  Josiah  Tatnall  made  him- 
self famous  by  the  part  he  took  in  the  war  between 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  65 

China,  England,  and  France.  While  some  English 
gunboats  were  removing  obstructions  from  the  Peiho 
River,  a  fierce  fire  was  opened  on  them  by  the  Chinese 
forts.  Tatnall,  stirred  by  the  spirit  of  Anglo-Saxon 
kinship,  ordered  his  boat  to  be  manned,  saying  to  one 
of  his  officers,  "  Blood  is  thicker  than  water."  Row- 
ing to  the  British  gunboat,  he  took  efficient  part  in 
its  fight  with  the  Chinese.  This  act,  while  against 
international  law,  has  gone  far  to  strengthen  the  feel- 
ing of  brotherhood  between  the  American  and  English 
peoples. 

The  outbreak  of  war  with  Mexico,  in  1846,  was  fol- 
lowed by  active  movements  in  the  navy.  It  was  pre- 
ceded, indeed,  by  naval  movements,  for  in  1842  a 
squadron,  comprising  the  old  frigate  United  States, 
the  captured  sloop  Cyane,  the  sloop  of  war  Dale,  and 
the  schooner  Shark,  under  Commodore  Thomas  ap 
Catesby  Jones,  was  sent  round  the  Horn  to  guard 
American  interests  on  the  Pacific  coast  and  prevent 
England  from  grasping  the  loosely  held  Mexican 
province  of  California.  On  reaching  Callao,  Com- 
modore Jones  read  a  despatch  in  a  newspaper  of  that 
port  stating  that  Mexico  had  just  ceded  California  to 
Great  Britain,  and  that  very  evening  the  British  frigate 
Dublin  appeared  off  the  harbor.  On  seeing  the 
Yankee  squadron  inside,  the  Briton  turned  and  sailed 
away  again  without  casting  anchor.  Jones,  connect- 
ing this  curious  movement  with  the  newspaper  state- 
ment, immediately  hoisted  anchor  and  sailed  away  in 
all  haste  for  California,  reaching  the  harbor  of  Mon- 
terey on  October  19.  There  were  no  signs  of  the 
Dublin,  but  he  landed  and  took  possession.  He 
learned  the  next  day  that  Monterey  still  belonged  to 

5 


66  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

Mexico,  which  was  at  peace  with  the  United  States, 
so  he  gave  the  town  up  again  with  what  apologies  he 
could  muster.  Jones  was  recalled  for  this  action,  but 
in  no  way  punished.  The  administration  was  in  full 
sympathy  with  his  act. 

When  news  of  the  declaration  of  war  reached  the 
Pacific  slope,  Captain  John  D.  Sloat,  then  commo- 
dore of  the  squadron,  at  once  sailed  for  Monterey  in 
the  frigate  Savannah.  He  found  several  other  United 
States  vessels  in  the  harbor,  and  hastened  to  seize  the 
town.  A  week  afterwards  the  Portsmouth  took  pos- 
session of  San  Francisco  Bay. 

Sloat  was  in  bad  health,  and  soon  afterwards  trans- 
ferred the  command  to  Captain  Robert  F.  Stockton, 
who  took  possession  of  the  port  of  Los  Angeles,  where 
he  organized  a  State  government,  placing  John  C. 
Fremont  at  its  head.  Various  other  minor  operations 
took  place  along  the  coast,  the  ships  co-operating  with 
the  land  forces,  the  war  in  that  quarter  ending  with 
the  Americans  in  full  possession  of  California. 

Meanwhile,  the  navy  in  the  Gulf  was  operating 
against  the  Mexican  coast,  its  first  work  being  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Rio  Grande,  to  help  protect  the  garrison 
which  General  Taylor  had  left  at  Point  Isabel.  Com- 
modore David  Conner  was  in  command,  but  was 
poorly  provided  with  ships,  with  which  he  made  two 
unsuccessful  attempts  to  take  Alvarado,  an  important 
port  south  of  Vera  Cruz. 

The  principal  achievements  of  the  navy  before  the 
siege  of  Vera  Cruz  were  the  capture  of  the  important 
port  of  Frontera  and  of  the  city  of  Tabasco,  which  lay 
some  distance  up  the  river  at  whose  mouth  Frontera 
is  situated.  This  work,  performed  by  Captain  Perry, 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  67 

gave  the  Americans  control  of  the  adjoining  province 
of  Yucatan  until  the  end  of  the  war. 

The  chief  work  demanded  of  the  fleet,  however, 
was  the  capture  of  Vera  Cruz,  which  General  Scott 
proposed  to  make  the  starting-point  of  his  march 
upon  the  capital  of  Mexico.  In  March,  1847,  a  fleet 
of  seventy  ships  and  transports  was  gathered  before 
this  port,  conveying  the  twelve  thousand  six  hundred 
men  of  Scott's  army  of  invasion. 

It  was  decided  to  make  the  attack  by  a  combined 
land  and  naval  force,  and  land  batteries  were  planted 
which  began  the  bombardment  on  March  22,  1847. 
The  next  day  an  attack  on  the  castle  of  San  Juan  de 
Ulloa  was  begun  by  the  fleet. 

Commodore  Conner,  who  had  made  all  the  dispo- 
sitions for  the  bombardment,  was  unfortunate  in  not 
being  able  to  take  part  in  the  triumph.  His  term  of 
service  with  that  fleet  expired,  under  the  regulations 
of  the  Navy  Department,  on  the  2ist,  and  he  was 
succeeded  by  Commodore  Matthew  C.  Perry,  who 
carried  forward  vigorously  the  work  he  had  begun. 
On  March  25  the  bombardment  of  Vera  Cruz  ceased, 
at  the  request  of  the  Mexicans.  Three  days  after- 
wards the  city  was  surrendered.  The  navy  had  com- 
pleted its  service  for  that  war. 

Not  many  years  afterwards  Commodore  Perry  per- 
formed an  important  work  not  only  for  the  United 
States,  but  for  the  civilized  world,  in  the  opening  of 
Japan  to  commerce  and  friendly  intercourse.  For 
several  centuries  the  island  empire  of  Japan,  incensed 
at  the  behavior  of  its  first  Christian  visitors,  had  closed 
its  ports  to  the  world,  and  remained  persistently  iso- 
lated. After  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century 


68  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

several  efforts  were  made  by  European  nations,  and 
particularly  by  Russia,  to  put  an  end  to  this  policy 
of  isolation,  but  in  vain.  The  United  States  joined 
in  these  efforts.  Commodore  Biddle  was  sent  to 
Japan  with  two  frigates  in  1845,  but  failed  to  over- 
come the  distrust  of  the  islanders.  Commodore  Perry 
succeeded  to  this  mission  in  1852,  and  reached  Japan 
in  the  following  year  with  the  steamers  Mississippi 
and  Susquehanna  and  the  sailing  ships  Saratoga  and 
Plymouth.  On  July  8  he  entered  the  Bay  of  Yedo, 
disregarding  the  Japanese  injunction  that  all  foreign 
ships  must  confine  their  visits  to  the  port  of  Nagasaki. 

An  earnest  effort  was  made  by  the  Japanese  to  in- 
duce him  to  leave  the  bay,  but  this  he  positively  de- 
clined to  do,  and  insisted  on  their  taking  to  the  em- 
peror the  letter  he  bore  from  the  President  of  the 
United  States.  The  size  and  threatening  character 
of  his  ships  added  to  the  force  of  his  words,  and  after 
some  fruitless  denials  the  Japanese  officials  at  length 
agreed  to  his  demand.  Leaving  the  letter,  which  was 
ceremoniously  received,  Perry  sailed  away,  saying 
that  he  would  return  after  some  months  for  an  answer. 
He  reappeared  in  February,  1854,  with  a  larger  fleet 
than  before,  and  now,  by  unyielding  persistence,  suc- 
ceeded in  obtaining  a  treaty  of  commerce  and  friend- 
ship with  Japan  in  which  all  his  demands  were  con- 
ceded. 

The  wall  of  Japanese  isolation  thus  broken  down, 
all  attempts  at  seclusion  were  soon  given  up,  treaties 
being  made  with  other  nations,  and  an  active  com- 
merce established.  The  work  of  Commodore  Perry 
has  proved  of  more  advantage  to  Japan  than  to  any 
other  nation,  since  that  country  has  emerged  from  the 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  69 

position  of  an  empire  absolutely  without  influence  in 
the  councils  of  the  nations  into  that  of  one  of  the  lead- 
ing powers  of  the  world. 

There  is  one  other  event  which  should  be  related 
here,  that  known  as  the  Koszta  incident.  Martin 
Koszta  had  been  born  in  Austria,  but  had  taken  out 
his  first  papers  as  a  citizen  of  the  United  States. 
While  at  Smyrna  in  1854  he  was  seized  by  the  Aus- 
trian authorities,  on  the  charge  of  having,  in  some 
way,  offended  the  Austrian  government,  and  was  taken 
on  board  the  war-ship  Hussar.  The  American  sloop 
of  war  St.  Louis,  Captain  Ingraham,  lay  in  the  harbor, 
and  an  appeal  in  behalf  of  Koszta  was  made  to  the 
captain  through  the  American  consul.  Captain  In- 
graham  at  once  demanded  the  man  from  the  captain 
of  the  Hussar,  but  the  Austrian,  having  the  larger 
ship,  declined  to  give  him  up.  Ingraham  at  once,  not 
troubled  by  the  disparity  in  force,  and  heedless  of 
diplomacy  and  official  delay,  laid  his  ship  alongside 
the  Hussar,  to  whose  captain  he  announced  that  he 
would  have  the  man  within  a  fixed  time  or  he  would 
fight  for  him.  The  man  was  given  up.  Ingraham 
was  voted  a  medal  by  Congress  for  his  bold  defence 
of  the  rights  of  American  citizens. 

A  brief  reference  may  be  made  to  some  other  mat- 
ters of  interest  in  connection  with  the  navy  in  the 
period  covered  by  this  chapter.  In  1838  a  naval  ex- 
pedition of  five  vessels,  under  the  command  of  Cap- 
tain Charles  Wilkes,  was  sent  out  to  make  a  scientific 
exploration  of  the  far  southern  seas.  It  was  absent 
four  years,  discovering  what  was  claimed  to  be  an 
Antarctic  continent,  exploring  many  islands  and 
coasts,  including  those  of  western  North  America, 


70  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

and  returning  in  1842  after  making  a  voyage  around 
the  world.  It  was  the  first  of  the  expeditions  for  the 
advancement  of  science  made  by  the  United  States, 
and  its  results  were  of  great  value. 

In  1847  Lieutenant  William  F.  Lynch,  of  the  navy, 
was  sent  on  a  government  exploring  expedition  to  the 
Dead  Sea,  and  returned  with  much  useful  informa- 
tion concerning  the  conditions  of  nature  in  that  region. 

The  various  expeditions  sent  to  the  Arctic  regions 
under  the  auspices  of  the  naval  department  of  the 
United  States  government  began  in  1850,  with  that 
conducted  by  Lieutenant  De  Haven  in  search  of  the 
Sir  John  Franklin  expedition.  In  1853  Elisha  Kent 
Kane,  surgeon  under  De  Haven,  conducted  an  expe- 
dition for  the  same  purpose,  and  in  1860  Isaac  I. 
Hayes  made  a  third  expedition  to  the  same  region. 
Success  in  the  search  for  the  remains  of  the  Frank- 
lin party  was  finally  obtained  by  Lieutenant  Schwatka, 
an  American  army  officer,  in  1879-80. 


CHAPTER    V. 

THE  NAVY  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

WITH  the  firing  on  Fort  Sumter,  in  April,  1861, 
began  the  great  American  Civil  War.  It  was  a  con- 
flict mainly  of  land  forces,  but  the  navy  played  in  it 
an  important  part,  though  under  conditions  widely 
different  from  those  which  it  had  met  with  in  any 
preceding  war.  The  contests  were  largely,  though 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  71 

not  wholly,  those  of  ships  against  forts,  and  took  place 
in  rivers  and  harbors  instead  of  on  the  open  sea.  And 
war-vessels  underwent  a  remarkable  development,  in 
which  steam  replaced  sails  and  the  wind  as  the  propel- 
ling power,  iron  made  impregnable  the  wooden  walls 
of  ships,  and  rifled  cannon  succeeded  in  some  measure 
the  old  smooth-bore  guns,  which  they  far  surpassed 
in  power  and  range.  These  changes,  however,  were 
only  in  part;  the  new  and  the  old  met  and  mingled 
in  our  ships  of  war;  it  was  the  first  stage  in  the  new 
era  of  naval  warfare,  and  the  world  looked  on  with 
astounded  eyes  as  it  saw  its  old  theories  set  at  naught 
and  its  dogmas  of  war  on  the  seas  converted  into  tra- 
ditions. One  memorable  battle,  indeed,  completely 
transformed  the  conditions  of  naval  war,  that  famous 
struggle  of  ironclads  in  the  waters  of  Hampton  Roads. 

It  is  our  purpose  here  to  deal  briefly  with  the  naval 
events  of  the  Civil  War,  confining  our  attention  to 
its  more  striking  episodes.  For  that  reason  we  shall 
say  little  concerning  the  blockade,  which  continued 
throughout  the  war,  but  was  marked  by  few  exciting 
incidents.  It  was  a  service  of  waiting  and  watching, 
with  the  chase  and  capture  of  blockade-runners  as  its 
leading  features  of  interest. 

The  first  proclamation  establishing  a  blockade  was 
issued  by  President  Lincoln  on  April  19,  1861,  six 
days  after  the  fall  of  Fort  Sumter.  On  the  2/th  a 
second  proclamation  was  issued,  adding  the  ports  of 
Virginia  and  Texas  to  those  ordered  to  be  closed,  and 
thus  extending  the  blockade  to  the  whole  coast-line 
of  the  Confederacy.  The  direct  distance  thus  covered 
was  more  than  three  thousand  five  hundred  miles, 
while  the  total  shore  line,  including  that  of  bays  and 


72  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

inlets,  was  nearly  six  thousand  eight  hundred  miles  in 
length,  and  the  shore  line  of  islands  needing  to  be 
watched  added  about  five  thousand  miles  more. 
Within  this  distance  were  one  hundred  and  eighty- 
five  river  and  harbor  openings  which  it  was  proposed 
to  close  to  commerce;  yet  for  this  purpose,  on  the 
day  the  proclamation  was  made,  the  government  had 
in  commission  the  small  total  of  twenty-six  steamers 
and  sixteen  sailing  ships,  of  which  three  only,  the 
Pawnee,  the  Mohawk,  and  the  Crusader,  were  at  that 
time  in  the  waters  of  the  Northern  States.  There 
were,  in  addition,  twenty-seven  ships  fit  for  service 
lying  at  the  different  navy-yards. 

With  this  inadequate  force  the  great  blockade  was 
begun.  This  state  of  affairs,  however,  did  not  long 
continue,  ship  after  ship  being  added  to  the  force,  until 
at  the  end  of  the  war  over  six  hundred  ships  were 
employed  in  the  blockade,  though  even  these  were  not 
enough  to  close  completely  the  Southern  ports.  The 
blockade-runners  were  vessels  built  for  speed,  and 
made  their  runs  mainly  at  night,  slipping  through  or 
around  the  blockading  fleets,  the  profits  of  the  ser- 
vice being  so  great  that  the  risk  of  capture  was  freely 
taken,  since  a  few  successful  runs  sufficed  to  much 
more  than  repay  the  cost  of  the  enterprise.  Though 
over  one  thousand  prizes  were  made  by  the  block- 
ading squadrons  during  the  war,  the  efforts  to  run  the 
blockade  were  continued  until  the  last  Confederate 
port  had  been  captured  and  closed. 

The  cannon  used  on  the  ships  at  that  time  were 
far  more  powerful  than  had  been  employed  in  any 
earlier  war.  The  Dahlgren  smooth-bores  were  in- 
creased in  size  until  guns  of  fifteen-inch  diameter  came 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  73 

into  use,  the  best  ships  of  the  navy  being  armed  with 
powerful  Dahlgren  guns.  The  frigate  Minnesota,  for 
instance,  carried  no  less  than  forty-two  9-inch  Dahl- 
grens  and  one  n-inch,  together  with  four  loo-pounder 
rifles  and  one  I5o-pounder,  and  could  throw  at  a 
broadside  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-one  pounds  of 
metal.  The  broadside  of  the  Merrimac  carried  four- 
teen hundred  and  twenty-four  pounds. 

The  naval  war  began  on  May  31,  1861,  with  the 
bombardment  of  a  battery  at  Acquia  Creek,  an  event 
which  was  attended  with  much  roar  of  cannons,  but 
with  no  loss  of  human  life  and  little  damage  to  fort 
or  vessels.  On  June  27  another  conflict  took  place 
at  Mathias  Point,  both  affairs  being  efforts  to  pre- 
vent the  Confederates  from  closing  the  navigation  of 
the  Potomac.  On  August  26  came  on  a  battle  of 
more  importance,  between  a  fleet  and  a  land  force, 
the  purpose  being  the  capture  of  Fort  Hatteras.  This, 
which  was  accomplished  on  the  28th,  was  the  first 
victory  gained  by  the  Union  side  during  the  war.  Not 
a  life  was  lost  by  the  Union  forces  in  the  assault,  while 
the  Confederate  loss  was  very  small.  In  November 
the  fleet  performed  another  valuable  service,  in  the 
capture  of  the  fine  harbor  of  Port  Royal,  on  the  South 
Carolina  coast.  A  stubborn  defence  was  made,  but 
the  forts  were  captured  with  little  loss  of  life.  The 
two  strongholds  thus  gained  were  held  by  the  Union 
forces  until  the  end  of  the  war. 

Meanwhile,  the  Confederates  had  been  actively  at 
work  on  the  lower  Mississippi  in  producing  the  first 
ironclad  used  in  the  war.  For  this  purpose  a  large 
double-screw  tug-boat  was  employed,  whose  shull  was 
cut  down  almost  to  the  water,  while  over  the  deck 


74  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

was  built  a  rounded  roof,  which  was  plated  with  bar 
iron  one  and  a  half  inches  thick.  To  convert  the  tug 
into  a  ram,  the  bow  was  filled  solid  with  timbers  for 
twenty  feet  back  and  plated  with  iron  like  the  roof. 
To  this  first  of  American  ironclads  the  first  land  battle 
of  the  war  supplied  a  name,  it  being  entitled  the  Ma- 
nassas,  in  honor  of  the  Confederate  victory  at  the  place 
of  that  name. 

On  the  night  of  October  31,  1861,  this  nondescript 
craft  made  its  appearance  near  the  mouth  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, where  a  small  government  fleet  was  guarding 
the  channel.  Coming  down  with  the  force  of  the 
current,  the  ironclad  struck  with  her  ram  the  flagship 
Richmond  almost  before  the  crew  had  taken  the  alarm. 
The  damage  done  was  slight,  the  Manassas  suffering 
the  most,  since  one  of  her  engines  was  wrecked  by  the 
shock.  But  this  new  device  in  naval  warfare  seems 
to  have  thoroughly  alarmed  the  captains  and  crews 
of  the  fleet,  and  they  made  their  way  in  all  haste  down 
the  river,  while  the  ironclad,  in  equal  dread  of  an 
attack  in  her  weakened  state,  crept  slowly  back  up- 
stream under  her  unharmed  engine.  It  was  an  in- 
stance of  double  alarm,  which  amounted  to  panic  on 
the  part  of  the  ships,  they  hastening  to  the  Gulf  and 
leaving  the  whole  river  clear. 

While  this  was  taking  place  on  the  Mississippi  two 
ironclads  of  different  description  were  being  made  else- 
where. At  an  early  date  in  the  war  steps  were  taken 
by  the  Confederate  government  for  the  building  of  a 
vessel  of  this  character  for  use  in  the  waters  of  Chesa- 
peake Bay  and  vicinity,  and  plans  for  it  were  drawn. 
The  abandonment  of  the  Norfolk  navy-yard  by  the 
government,  and  the  burning  and  sinking  there  of  the 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  75 

steam-frigate  Merrimac,  gave  the  Confederate  en- 
gineers a  basis  for  their  work.  The  partly  burned 
hull  was  raised  and  cut  down  to  the  berth  deck,  and 
a  deck  of  heavy  timbers  was  laid  over  the  entire  hull. 
On  this  was  built  a  sloping  roof  of  timber,  two  feet 
thick,  which  was  covered  with  a  layer  of  iron  plates 
two  inches  thick  and  eight  inches  wide,  laid  horizon- 
tally, and  an  outer  layer  of  the  same  thickness  laid 
vertically.  The  hull  was  plated  with  one  inch  iron 
for  two  feet  below  the  deck.  The  projecting  bow 
was  converted  into  a  ram  by  bolting  to  it,  below  the 
water-line,  a  cast-iron  wedge  that  projected  two  feet 
from  the  stem.  The  battery  of  this  formidable  vessel 
consisted  of  six  g-inch  Dahlgrens  and  four  massive 
rifles  of  7-inch  caliber. 

The  work  of  building  this  craft  was  begun  in  June, 
1 86 1.  The  Union  government  was  well  aware  of  what 
was  in  prospect,  but  Congress  and  the  naval  board 
made  such  needless  delay  that  it  was  not  until  October 
4  that  a  contract  was  signed  with  John  Ericsson  for 
the  building  of  an  iron-clad  ship.  Designs  had  been 
called  for,  and  three  of  these  were  accepted.  The  ship 
built  under  one  of  them  proved  a  failure,  from  the 
poor  fastening  of  her  iron  armor;  another,  named  the 
New  Ironsides,  did  excellent  work  a  year  or  so  later; 
the  third,  that  designed  by  Ericsson,  was  the  only  one 
calculated  to  meet  in  time  the  coming  exigency. 

The  delay  of  the  officials  was  not  emulated  by  the 
workmen.  The  new  vessel  was  built  with  the  utmost 
rapidity,  three  gangs  of  men  being  employed  and 
working  night  and  day.  The  craft  which  came  into 
shape  under  their  hands  was  of  a  pattern  such  -as  the 
world  had  never  before  seen.  The  lower  hull,  one 


76  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

hundred  and  twenty-four  feet  long,  thirty-four  wide, 
and  about  six  deep,  was  covered  with  a  structure  that 
projected  beyond  it  on  all  sides,  the  projection  being 
three  feet  eight  inches  on  the  sides  and  twenty-five 
feet  at  each  end.  This  overhanging  part  was  like  a 
separate  flat-bottomed  hull  laid  on  top  of  the  lower 
one.  It  was  one  hundred  and  seventy-two  feet  long, 
forty-one  wide,  and  had  vertical  sides  rising  five  feet 
in  height.  The  lower  hull,  which  was  made  of  boiler 
iron  riveted  to  interior  frame-work,  was  secured  by  a 
row  of  rivets  to  the  upper  one,  whose  projecting  sides 
insured  its  safety  from  shots.  The  sides  of  the  pro- 
jecting part  were  protected  by  iron  armor  composed 
of  five  i-inch  plates  securely  bolted  to  a  heavy  back- 
ing of  oak  timbers,  the  vessel  sinking  in  the  water 
until  little  more  than  a  foot  of  the  armored  side  stood 
above  the  water-line.  Great  wooden  beams  stretched 
across  supported  a  heavy  timber  deck,  on  which  were 
bolted  two  layers  of  half-inch  iron  plates,  as  a  protec- 
tion against  a  plunging  fire.  From  the  centre  rose  a 
circular  turret,  twenty  feet  in  inner  diameter  and  nine 
feet  high,  supported  on  a  pivot  which  could  be  easily 
turned  by  engine  power.  It  was  armored  with  eight 
I -inch  iron  plates,  and  carried  two  n-inch  smooth- 
bore guns,  firing  solid  shot  of  about  one  hundred  and 
eighty  pounds  weight.  These  were  muzzle-loaders, 
but  when  loading  the  turret  was  turned  so  as  not  to 
expose  their  port-holes  to  the  guns  of  an  enemy. 

Such  was  the  general  aspect  of  the  Monitor,  as  this 
vessel  was  named,  the  strangest  craft  that  eye  of  man 
had  ever  gazed  upon.  Sitting  deep  in  the  water,  her 
deck  rising  but  a  foot  above  the  surface,  and  with  her 
round  turret  alone  protruding,  she  justified  the  Con- 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  77 

federate  description  of  "  a  cheese-box  on  a  raft."  In- 
teriorly she  was  well  ventilated  by  steam  fans  and  the 
men  endured  their  confinement  with  some  degree  of 
comfort. 

As  the  Merrimac  and  the  Monitor  neared  comple- 
tion a  race  arose  as  to  which  should  be  finished  first, 
spies  keeping  both  sides  well  informed  of  the  prog- 
ress made.  As  it  chanced,  they  were  made  ready 
almost  simultaneously,  the  Merrimac,  however,  pos- 
sessing the  advantage  of  being  nearest  the  scene  of 
proposed  action. 

On  the  morning  of  March  8,  1862,  as  the  United 
States  steam-frigates  St.  Lawrence,  Roanoke,  and 
Minnesota,  the  sailing  frigate  Congress,  and  the  sloop 
of  war  Cumberland  lay  anchored  at  various  points  in 
Hampton  Roads,  a  long  trail  of  smoke  rising  in  the 
direction  of  Norfolk  gave  warning  of  the  approach  of 
the  dreaded  ironclad,  and  the  drums  beat  the  threat- 
ened crews  to  quarters. 

The  attack  was  made  on  the  sailing  vessels,  which 
lay  not  far  apart  and  out  of  reach  of  aid  from  the  guns 
of  the  fort.  They  poured  the  full  fire  of  their  broad- 
sides on  the  iron  monster  as  she  approached,  but  all 
in  vain,  for  their  balls  bounded  from  the  iron  hull 
"  like  peas  from  a  pea-shooter."  The  fire  of  the  Mer- 
rimac had  a  very  different  effect,  spreading  death 
through  the  wooden  ships.  Passing  the  Congress, 
the  iron  monster  rushed  at  her  highest  speed  upon  the 
Cumberland,  the  armed  bow  crushing  deep  into  the 
side  of  the  fated  ship.  As  she  drew  back,  leaving 
her  iron  prow  in  the  gaping  wound,  she  fired  every 
gun  that  would  bear,  while  the  water  poured  in  a 
torrent  into  the  Cumberland's  hold.  The  wounded 


78  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

vessel  at  once  began  to  sink,  but  the  men  kept  un- 
flinchingly at  their  guns,  firing  the  last  shot  as  the 
waters  were  ready  to  close  above  the  deck.  Then  to 
the  bottom  she  went,  her  flag  still  flying,  and  such  of 
the  crew  as  survived  swimming  for  the  shore. 

The  Merrimac  next  turned  towards  the  Congress. 
Here  the  shoalness  of  the  water  prevented  the  use  of 
the  ram,  but  the  guns  of  the  assailant  poured  such 
disaster  upon  this  ship  that  a  white  flag  was  soon  dis- 
played. Commodore  Buchanan,  of  the  Merrimac, 
now  ordered  the  two  gunboats  that  accompanied  him 
to  take  possession  of  the  prize.  But  a  sharp  fire  from 
troops  ranged  along  the  shore  prevented  this  being 
done,  and  in  the  end  Buchanan  ordered  the  firing  of 
red-hot  shot  into  the  ship,  soon  setting  her  on  fire 
from  stem  to  stern.  As  the  flames  enveloped  the 
doomed  victim  the  Merrimac  turned  and  steamed  back 
towards  Sewell's  Point.  She  had  done  enough  for 
one  day,  but  had  not  come  off  quite  scot  free,  and  her 
commander  was  content  to  let  the  remainder  of  his 
work  remain  for  the  following  day. 

But  this  day  told  a  different  tale.  Late  that  after- 
noon Ericsson's  strange  little  boat,  the  Monitor, 
steamed  into  the  harbor,  and  took  her  position  behind 
the  Minnesota,  prepared  to  do  her  work  when  the 
next  day's  sun  should  dawn.  She  was  on  her  trial 
trip,  her  acceptance  by  the  government  depending  on 
her  performance  in  the  momentous  impending  con- 
flict. It  need  scarcely  be  said  that  there  was  no  ques- 
tion about  her  acceptance  after  the  next  day's  work. 

The  Monitor,  however,  was  not  made  for  storm. 
She  had  encountered  a  high  sea  on  her  passage  down 
from  New  York,  which  threatened  her  with  the  fate 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  79 

which  she  met  with  some  months  afterwards.  Water 
poured  through  the  hawse-pipe  and  dashed  down  the 
smoke-stack,  until  the  fires  were  nearly  extinguished. 
The  fan-belts  became  wet  and  the  draught  was  cut 
off,  the  engineers  and  firemen  being  half  suffocated. 
The  water  deepened  in  the  hold  until  the  vessel  threat- 
ened to  sink,  a  disaster  which  would  have  proved  fatal 
to  the  Hampton  Roads  fleet.  Fortunately  she  reached 
smooth  water  without  this  fatal  termination  of  her 
career. 

Early  the  next  day  the  Merrimac  left  her  anchorage 
and  steamed  down  the  harbor,  firing  on  the  Minne- 
sota while  still  a  mile  away.  At  once  the  Monitor 
shot  out  from  her  concealment  and  darted  straight  to- 
wards her  bulky  adversary,  continuing  her  course 
until  the  giant  and  the  dwarf  lay  closely  side  by  side. 

And  now  began  the  most  momentous  conflict  in  the 
history  of  the  navies  of  the  world,  an  epoch-making 
combat  which  rendered  useless  and  antiquated  all  the 
existing  fleets  of  the  nations.  The  first  ball  from 
the  Monitor  struck  the  side  of  her  antagonist  with  a 
mighty  crash,  breaking  the  iron  plates  as  it  bounded 
into  the  sea.  The  Merrimac  fired  back  with  no  better 
effect  than  to  dint  the  thick-shelled  turret  of  the  Moni- 
tor. Thus  this  strange  battle  began  and  thus  it  went 
on,  the  two  iron  ships  hurling  shot  fiercely  at  each 
other,  and  each  in  turn  trying  to  sink  the  other  with  a 
blow  from  her  ram. 

Of  the  two  combatants  the  Merrimac  suffered  the 
most,  many  of  her  balls  missing  the  turret  of  the 
Monitor,  while  every  ball  of  the  latter  told.  But  a 
shell  directed  at  the  pilot-house  of  the  smaller  craft 
so  disabled  Captain  Worden,  who  was  using  it  as  a 


8o  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

conning-tower,  that  the  wounded  officer  gave  orders 
to  sheer  off.  This  ended  the  battle.  Before  the  Moni- 
tor was  ready  to  return  the  Merrimac  had  withdrawn 
from  the  contest  for  that  day  and  the  strange  duel 
was  at  an  end.  It  had  continued  for  several  hours, 
during  which  the  two  ironclads  had  vigorously  bat- 
tered each  other  with  little  injury  to  their  armored 
hulls. 

The  Merrimac  was  leaking  badly,  and  considera- 
tions of  safety  demanded  her  retreat.  She  did  not 
reappear  in  Hampton  Roads  until  April  1 1 ,  when  she 
came  down  again  and  offered  to  fight,  but  the  Monitor 
did  not  accept  the  challenge.  The  authorities  at 
Washington  did  not  care  to  risk  this  single  safeguard, 
and  had  sent  strict  orders  that  she  was  not  to  fight 
unless  forced  to  do  so.  The  loth  of  May  ended  the 
Merrimac's  career.  Norfolk  was  on  that  day  aban- 
doned by  the  Confederates,  their  famous  vessel  being 
first  set  on  fire  and  blown,  by  the  explosion  of  her 
magazine,  to  the  winds.  The  Monitor  did  not  long 
survive  her.  Late  in  December  she  was  sent  south- 
ward, and  on  January  2,  1863,  was  caught  in  a  gale 
off  Cape  Hatteras  and  went  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea. 
Thus  ended  the  story  of  the  first  fighting  ironclads. 

While  these  events  were  proceeding  in  the  Atlantic 
waters,  iron-clad  gunboats  for  river  service  were  being 
built  on  the  waters  of  the  West.  These  were  prepared 
by  James  B.  Eads,  the  famous  engineer  of  later  times, 
under  a  contract  signed  August  7,  1861,  sixty-five 
days  being  given  for  the  construction  of  seven  boats. 
The  boats  built  were  light-draught,  stern  paddle-wheel 
river  steamers,  with  sloping  sides  and  ends,  which 
were  plated  with  2j-inch  iron.  Each  of  them  carried 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  81 

thirteen  rifled  guns,  capable  of  throwing  a  seventy- 
pound  shell.  The  armor  at  the  bow  was  heavily 
backed  with  oak,  but  was  left  unsupported  in  the  rear, 
as  the  boats  were  expected  to  fight  with  their  fronts 
to  the  foe. 

These  were  named  De  Kalb,  Carondelet,  Cincinnati, 
Louisville,  Mound  City,  Cairo,  and  Pittsburg.  The 
snag-boat  Benton  was  also  converted  into  an  iron- 
clad, the  most  powerful  then  in  existence,  and  known 
popularly  as  the  Old  War  Horse,  while  a  similar  one, 
the  Essex,  received  its  name  from  being  commanded 
by  William  Porter,  a  son  of  Captain  Porter  of  the  old 
Essex.  To  these  vessels  were  added  the  wooden  craft 
Taylor,  Lexington,  and  Conestoga. 

This  fleet  of  river  boats  saw  much  service  on  the 
rivers  of  the  West  and  played  an  important  part  in  the 
opening  of  the  Mississippi  to  Union  craft.  We  must, 
however,  confine  ourselves  to  a  brief  description  of 
their  work.  The  first  naval  fight  on  the  Western 
waters  was  at  Belmont,  Missouri,  where  the  Taylor 
and  the  Lexington  attacked  the  Confederate  works 
in  support  of  a  land  attack  by  General  Grant.  But 
the  first  important  service  of  the  fleet  was  at  Fort 
Henry,  on  the  Tennessee,  February  6,  1862,  when, 
under  Flag-officer  Andrew  H.  Foote,  it  bombarded 
and  subdued  the  fort  before  Grant,  with  the  land 
forces,  could  arrive.  On  February  12  the  leading 
vessels  of  the  fleet  reached  Fort  Donelson,  on  the 
Cumberland,  and  on  the  next  day  began  the  bom- 
bardment of  that  strong  work.  Foote  arrived  with 
other  vessels  during  the  night,  and  on  the  I4th  the 
attack  proceeded  briskly.  It  ended  in  disaster  to  the 
fleet,  as  several  of  the  boats  were  seriously  injured  by 

6 


82  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

the  fire  of  the  enemy.  The  victory  was  an  army  one, 
the  fort  being  surrendered  to  Grant  on  the  i6th. 

Returning  to  the  Mississippi,  the  fleet  began  the 
task  of  opening  that  stream.  General  Pope  was 
marching  to  the  attack  of  Island  No.  10,  a  strongly 
fortified  point,  and  asked  Foote  to  send  a  couple  of 
gunboats  down  by  night  past  the  Confederate  batteries 
to  cover  his  crossing.  This  service  was  one  of  great 
danger  and  Foote  refused  to  take  the  risk,  but  he 
subsequently  permitted  Captain  Henry  Walke,  of  the 
Carondelet,  to  make  the  attempt. 

Captain  Walke  prepared  his  vessel  for  the  iron 
hail  from  the  fort  by  placing  extra  planking  on  her 
deck,  over  which  his  chain  cables  were  laid  as  armor. 
The  engine  and  boiler  were  protected  with  cord-wood 
and  the  pilot-house  was  wrapped  thickly  with  ropes. 
As  a  further  protection  a  barge  of  baled  hay  was  lashed 
to  the  exposed  side.  Thus  equipped,  on  the  night  of 
April  10  the  Carondelet  lifted  her  anchors  and  began 
her  perilous  run  just  as  a  heavy  thunder-storm  came 
on.  Unluckily  for  the  bold  adventurers,  when  they 
had  arrived  nearly  opposite  the  batteries  the  soot  in  the 
smoke-stack  caught  fire  and  flames  blazed  redly  into 
the  air.  A  keen  flash  of  lightning  at  the  same  time 
revealed  the  floating  craft.  The  Confederates  ran  in 
all  haste  to  their  guns,  whose  roar  soon  vied  with  that 
of  the  thunder.  But  the  gunners  were  confused  and 
their  eyes  half  blinded  by  the  lightning's  glare,  and  the 
gallant  Carondelet  passed  by  unharmed.  This  was  tHe 
first  "  running  of  the  batteries,"  a  performance  which 
became  frequent  in  later  days.  The  brave  Walke  has 
the  credit  of  being  the  pioneer  in  this  work  of  danger. 

Island  No.  10  soon  surrendered,  and  the  fleet  passed 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  83 

on  to  Fort  Pillow,  the  next  Confederate  stronghold 
on  the  stream.  Foote  had  been  wounded  at  Fort 
Donelson,  and  Captain  Charles  H.  Davis  now  took  his 
place.  Here  the  work  of  the  river  squadron  .assumed 
another  aspect.  Every  day  a  mortar-boat  was  towed 
by  a  gunboat  to  a  point  from  which  it  could  throw 
shells  into  the  fort,  the  gunboat  keeping  at  hand  to 
protect  it.  On  May  10  the  Cincinnati  performed  this 
service  and  remained  near  as  a  guard  against  the  Con- 
federate boats  that  lay  below  the  fort. 

An  hour  later  the  rising  of  a  dense  cloud  of  smoke 
gave  signal  that  the  Confederate  fleet  was  out  for  a 
dash  on  the  mortar-boat  and  her  consort.  The  Cin- 
cinnati faced  them  alone,  and  for  a  time  fought  vigor- 
ously with  three  assailants,  but,  twice  wounded  by 
ramming,  was  soon  forced  to  run  into  shoal  water, 
where  she  sank.  The  other  boats,  meanwhile,  were 
hastening  to  her  aid  and  a  sharp  fight  between  the 
squadrons  began,  ending  in  a  Confederate  retreat, 
though  the  Mound  City  was  also  left  in  a  sinking  con- 
dition. 

Fort  Pillow  was  evacuated  on  June  4,  and  on  the 
next  day  the  Union  fleet  anchored  just  above  Mem- 
phis, beside  whose  levee  the  Confederate  vessels  had 
taken  refuge.  In  the  early  morning  of  the  6th  began 
a  new  battle  of  the  fleets.  Colonel  Charles  Ellet  had 
joined  the  government  flotilla  with  seven  river  steam- 
ers which  he  had  converted  into  rams,  and  two  of 
these,  the  Queen  of  the  West  and  the  Monarch, 
dashed  down  the  stream  through  the  cloud  of  smoke 
and  attacked  the  boats  below. 

In  a  brief  interval  four  of  the  Confederate  and  one 
of  the  Union  boats  were  on  the  bottom  or  had  run 


84  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

ashore.  The  remaining  Confederate  boats  sought 
safety  in  flight,  but  one  of  them  was  sunk  by  shells 
and  two  were  forced  to  surrender.  Only  one,  the  Van 
Dorn,  escaped.  The  work  of  the  rams  in  this  con- 
test had  been  efficient.  Within  about  fifteen  minutes 
three  vessels  had  been  sent  to  the  bottom  by  ram- 
ming, while  several  others  had  been  disabled  by  shots. 
The  result  of  the  fight  was  the  surrender  of  Memphis 
and  the  opening  of  the  river  as  far  south  as  Vicksburg. 
Shortly  afterwards,  during  an  expedition  up  White 
River,  Arkansas,  the  boiler  of  the  Mound  City  was 
burst  by  a  Confederate  shell.  Of  one  hundred  and 
seventy-five  persons  on  board,  only  twenty-five  es- 
caped unhurt  from  the  frightful  explosion.  On  June 
29  the  flotilla  steamed  down  to  Vicksburg  and  there, 
on  July  i,  met  a  Union  fleet  under  Admiral  Farragut. 
We  have  already  told  how  a  Union  squadron  in  the 
Mississippi  fled  in  dismay  from  the  Confederate  ram 
Manassas.  A  new  story  was  to  be  told  in  the  suc- 
ceeding year.  An  attack  on  New  Orleans  was  sug- 
gested to  the  Navy  Department  by  Commander  David 
D.  Porter,  who  proposed  as  leader  of  the  expedition 
David  G.  Farragut,  midshipman  under  his  father  in 
the  old  Essex  fifty  years  before.  The  suggestion  was 
accepted  and  Farragut  appointed  flag-officer  of  the 
fleet,  and  on  February  20,  1862,  he  reached  Ship 
Island,  near  the  mouth  of  the  great  river  of  the  West. 
The  squadron  under  his  command  consisted  of  the 
bark  Hartford,  of  twenty-four  guns,  the  flag-ship, 
three  screw  sloops,  a  side-wheel  steamer,  three  cor- 
vettes, and  nine  gunboats.  In  addition  there  were 
twenty  mortar-boats,  with  six  gunboats  to  protect 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  85 

them,  the  latter  flotilla  being  placed  under  Porter's 
command. 

The  Confederates  depended  for  protection  on  two 
strong  works,  Fort  St.  Philip  and  Fort  Jackson,  which 
commanded  the  river  at  a  point  where  it  turned  in  a 
sharp,  knee-like  bend.  They  had  also  stretched  a 
strong  chain  across  the  stream,  and  were  supported 
by  eleven  steamers  and  a  floating  iron-clad  battery 
called  the  Louisiana.  The  ram  Manassas  formed 
part  of  the  fleet.  To  meet  these  formidable  defences 
Farragut  had  only  wooden  vessels,  whose  resisting 
power  he  sought  to  improve  by  stretching  chain  cables 
over  their  sides,  and  guarding  the  engines  by  bags  of 
coal,  sand,  ashes,  and  other  materials.  The  mortar- 
schooners  were  disguised  by  lashing  branches  of  trees 
to  their  masts  so  as  to  make  them  indistinguishable 
from  the  river-side  trees.  Thus  prepared  for  the  des- 
perate struggle,  the  antagonists  entered  upon  their 
work. 

Beginning  April  18,  for  six  days  the  mortar-boats 
kept  up  a  steady  fire,  while  on  the  2Oth  Lieutenant 
Caldwell,  in  the  gunboat  Itasca,  made  a  dash  upon 
the  river  chain,  which  he  succeeded  in  breaking.  At 
two  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  24th  of  April  the 
advance  up  the  river  began,  the  Cayuga,  Captain  Baily, 
leading  the  way,  while  the  mortar-boats  poured  shells 
into  Fort  Jackson  in  a  steady  stream. 

As  the  leading  ships  neared  the  forts,  great  piles  of 
wood  were  fired  and  threw  their  lurid  gleam  far  over 
the  stream,  while  the  forts  opened  with  their  hottest 
fire  upon  the  daring  craft.  The  first  division  drove 
through  before  the  Confederates  had  fairly  recovered 
from  their  surprise,  but  the  second  met  with  fiercer 


86  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

opposition,  having  to  fight  not  only  the  forts,  but 
fire-rafts  that  came  blazing  down  the  river,  and  from 
which  Farragut's  flag-ship  narrowly  escaped. 

The  fight  with  the  Confederate  vessels  was  more 
severe  than  that  with  the  forts.  The  Cayuga,  the  first 
to  encounter  them,  was  soon  reinforced  by  others,  and 
for  some  time  a  brisk  battle  went  on.  The  Louisiana 
proved  of  little  service,  and  the  Manassas,  after  a 
vigorous  effort  to  ram  some  of  the  Union  ships,  was 
run  ashore  and  abandoned  by  her  crew.  The  battle 
ended  in  the  flight  of  the  unhurt  Confederate  craft,  the 
Union  fleet  following  triumphantly  up  the  stream  and 
reaching  the  levees  of  New  Orleans  at  one  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon  of  April  25.  The  forts  were  surrendered 
to  Porter  on  April  28,  and  a  few  days  afterwards 
Farragut  sailed  on  up-stream,  passing  Vicksburg, 
beyond  which,  as  we  have  said,  he  met  the  flotilla  of 
river  boats. 

During  the  succeeding  year  a  number  of  naval 
operations  of  minor  importance  took  place  on  the 
Mississippi,  but  the  most  striking  event  was  that  of 
the  night  of  April  16,  1863,  when  Porter,  then  in  com- 
mand of  the  river  fleet,  ran  the  batteries  at  Vicksburg 
to  the  aid  of  General  Grant,  who  had  marched  his 
army  down  west  of  the  stream.  Farragut  had  passed 
the  batteries  at  Port  Hudson  a  month  before,  and 
several  successful  single  runs  had  been  made  past  the 
Vicksburg  forts,  but  this  daring  attempt  was  made 
with  a  fleet  of  twelve  vessels.  It  proved  remarkably 
successful,  the  rain  of  balls  from  the  batteries  only 
disabling  one  boat,  the  transport  Henry  Clay,  which 
caught  fire  and  sank. 

The  capture  of  Vicksburg  put  an  end  to  active  oper- 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  87 

ations  on  the  river,  with  the  exception  of  Banks's  Red 
River  expedition  of  March,  1864,  which  was  accom- 
panied by  Porter's  river  fleet.  The  principal  event  of 
interest  connected  with  this  was  the  fall  of  the  waters 
of  the  stream,  which  left  ten  gunboats  and  two  tugs 
helpless  above  the  rapids,  passed  by  them  during  the 
flood.  There  was  serious  danger  of  their  loss,  but 
they  were  saved  by  the  ingenuity  of  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Joseph  Baily,  who  had  been  a  log-driver  in 
Wisconsin,  and  knew  how  to  deal  with  a  difficulty 
like  this.  In  a  brief  time  he  built  a  dam  across  the 
stream,  by  which  he  raised  the  waters  sufficiently  to 
float  the  boats  and  carry  them  through.  Baily  was 
thanked  by  Congress  and  made  a  brigadier-general  for 
his  skilful  work. 

With  the  story  of  how  Farragut  took  New  Orleans 
and  Porter  ran  the  Vicksburg  forts  and  surmounted 
the  Red  River  rapids,  we  have  completed  the  account 
of  the  operations  of  the  navy  in  inland  waters  during 
the  Civil  War.  But  Farragut's  most  famous  exploit 
remains  to  be  told, — the  story  of  the  great  naval  battle 
in  the  bay  of  Mobile.  This  bay  extends  thirty  miles 
inland  and  is  fifteen  miles  wide  at  its  mouth,  though 
sandy  islands  contract  it  until  but  a  narrow  ship- 
channel  remains.  The  entrance  was  guarded  by  two 
strong  forts,  Fort  Gaines  on  Dauphin  Island  and  Fort 
Morgan  on  Mobile  Point.  The  latter,  which  imme- 
diately commanded  the  channel,  was  a  powerful  work, 
abundantly  provided  with  large  smooth-bore  and  to 
some  extent  with  rifled  guns.  The  bay  was  further 
guarded  by  a  number  of  gunboats  and  the  iron-clad 
ram  Tennessee,  the  most  powerful  floating  battery 
built  by  the  Confederate  government. 


88  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

The  sides  and  ends  of  this  vessel,  built  of  heavy 
oak  and  pine  timber,  were  inclined  at  an  angle  of 
forty-five  degrees,  and  were  covered  with  six  inches 
of  iron  armor  in  front  and  with  five  inches  elsewhere. 
She  carried  only  six  guns,  but  these  were  rifled  cannon 
of  eight-  and  six-inch  aperture.  Her  principal  defects 
were  her  lack  of  speed  and  the  exposure  of  her  steer- 
ing-chains, which  ran  over  the  deck. 

The  Confederates  had  abundant  time  to  prepare  for 
the  expected  attack.  The  useless  Red  River  expedi- 
tion delayed  Farragut  by  detaining  the  troops  whom 
he  needed  to  employ.  For  six  months  he  was  com- 
pelled to  lie  idle  while  the  Confederates  were  com- 
pleting their  forts,  finishing  the  Tennessee,  and  sow- 
ing the  channel  thickly  with  torpedoes,  one  hundred 
and  eighty  in  all,  a  new  element  in  marine  warfare 
never  before  largely  employed.  Admiral  Buchanan, 
who  had  commanded  the  Merrimac,  was  in  command 
of  the  Tennessee,  but  for  some  reason  unknown  did 
not  venture  to  attack  Farragut's  wooden  ships. 

In  the  end  four  monitors  were  sent  to  reinforce  the 
Union  fleet,  and  in  the  early  morning  of  August  5, 
1864,  the  long-delayed  movement  began,  the  wooden 
vessels  being  protected  in  the  method  employed  in  the 
advance  upon  New  Orleans,  while  the  smaller  vessels 
were  lashed  on  the  off  side  of  the  larger.  At  5.30 
A.M.  the  signal  to  move  appeared  at  the  mast-head  of 
the  Hartford,  Farragut's  flag-ship,  and  by  6.10  the 
monitors  were  crossing  the  bar,  followed  by  the  four- 
teen wooden  vessels  of  the  fleet. 

As  the  Tecumseh,  the  leading  monitor,  approached, 
she  hurled  balls  from  her  two  1 5-inch  guns  at  the 
fort.  No  reply  was  made.  The  Confederate  fire  was 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  89 

withheld  until  it  could  be  used  at  the  shortest  range, 
and  then  a  hail  of  shot  and  shell  was  poured  on  the 
leading  ships.  It  proved  singularly  ineffective,  indi- 
cating very  unskilful  aiming,  only  a  single  shot  in  the 
whole  affair  doing  any  serious  damage.  The  ships  in 
return  poured  grape  and  canister  from  their  guns, 
their  purpose  being  to  drive  the  Confederate  gunners 
from  their  pieces,  in  which  they  were  successful,  the 
fire  of  the  fort  quickly  slackening  under  this  rain  of 
projectiles. 

The  fort  passed  by  the  leading  vessels,  the  Confed- 
erate fleet  had  next  to  be  dealt  with,  the  Tennessee 
opening  fire  on  the  monitor  Tecumseh  as  she  ap- 
proached. Captain  Craven,  of  the  Tecumseh,  in  his 
haste  to  get  at  this  powerful  antagonist,  left  the  chan- 
nel which  had  been  buoyed  out  for  blockade-runners, 
and  headed  straight  for  the  Tennessee,  heedless  of  the 
torpedoes  in  his  path.  It  was  a  daring  but  a  fatal 
movement.  Suddenly  an  explosion  was  heard,  the 
bow  of  the  monitor  was  lifted  from  the  water,  she 
lurched  heavily,  and  then  went  down  bow  first,  carry- 
ing nearly  all  her  crew  to  instant  death.  A  torpedo 
had  rent  her  hull  asunder.  Of  all  on  board,  only  the 
pilot  and  a  few  men  escaped. 

Regardless  of  the  loss  of  the  Tecumseh,  the  other 
monitors  followed  in  her  track,  but  the  Brooklyn,  that 
came  next,  halted,  as  little  floats  ahead  showed  that  a 
nest  of  torpedoes  lay  before  her.  Her  recoil  checked 
the  fleet,  and  held  the  Hartford  under  the  hottest  fire 
of  the  fort,  one  shot  from  which  killed  nearly  a  whole 
gun's  crew.  Farragut,  who  had  taken  his  famous 
stand  in  the  shrouds,  just  under  the  maintop,  hailed 


90  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

the  Brooklyn  as  he  came  up  and  asked  what  was  the 
trouble. 

"Torpedoes,"  came  back  the  reply. 

"  D n  the  torpedoes !"  he  cried,  in  noble  anger. 

"Follow  me!" 

A  moment  more  and  the  Hartford  was  in  the  nest 
of  death-dealing  implements,  whose  percussion  caps 
were  heard  snapping  as  she  pushed  through  them. 
Fortunately  they  were  badly  made  and  not  one  ex- 
plosion took  place.  The  torpedoes  passed,  a  dash 
was  made  for  the  gunboats,  while  the  Tennessee  drove 
into  the  midst  of  the  Union  squadron,  trying,  but  in 
vain,  to  ram  one  after  another  of  the  fleet.  She  passed 
through  with  little  harm  done  to  either  side. 

Farragut,  like  Dewey  at  a  later  date,  now  ordered 
the  men  to  breakfast;  but  word  that  the  Tennessee 
had  turned  and  was  coming  back  sent  the  breakfast  in 
a  hurry  again  to  the  galley,  and  all  the  large  vessels 
of  the  fleet  prepared  to  meet  their  one  dreaded  foe. 
They  gathered  in  a  swarm  around  the  Tennessee,  so 
crowded  in  their  efforts  to  ram  her  that  the  Hartford 
narrowly  escaped  being  sent  to  the  bottom  by  the 
Lackawanna.  In  the  end  the  monitor  Chickasaw  com- 
pleted the  work.  She  cut  away  the  exposed  steering- 
gear,  jammed  the  stern  port  shutters  of  the  Tennessee 
so  that  they  could  not  be  opened,  and  seriously 
wounded  her  commander.  Yet,  though  unable  to 
steer  or  to  fire  a  gun,  the  Tennessee  for  twenty  minutes 
more  endured  the  pounding  of  the  fleet,  at  the  end  of 
which  time  the  flag  was  lowered  and  surrender  was 
made. 

This  ended  the  struggle.  The  forts  soon  afterwards 
were  taken  and  the  port  of  Mobile  was  closed  to  Con- 


ADMIRAL   JOHN    L.    WORDEN.  ADMIRAL    DAVID   G.    FARRAGUT. 


ADMIRAL    DAVID    D.    PORTER.  ADMIRAL   ANDREW    H.    FOOTE. 


CAPTAIN    RAPHAEL   SEMMES.  ADMIRAL   J.    A.    DAHLGREN. 

NAVAL   COMMANDERS    IN    THE   CIVIL   WAR. 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  91 

federate  commerce.  The  bay  was  swept  for  torpe- 
does, yet  so  thickly  had  they  been  planted  that  no  less 
than  three  ships,  two  tugs,  and  a  launch  were  after- 
wards sunk  by  them.  It  was  good  fortune  to  the 
fleet  that  those  in  its  track  had  become  useless. 

While  Farragut  lay  waiting  outside  Mobile  Bay, 
there  took  place  the  one  open-sea  fight  of  the  war. 
The  privateer  Alabama,  which  had  done  immense 
damage  to  Northern  commerce,  entered  the  port  of 
Cherbourg,  France,  on  June  10,  1864,  and  was  there 
blockaded  by  the  Kearsarge,  Captain  John  A.  Wins- 
low.  The  ships  were  fairly  matched  in  size  and 
weight  of  metal,  though  the  Kearsarge  had  the  better 
guns.  On  the  I9th  Captain  Semmes  boldly  left  port 
to  meet  his  antagonist,  and  soon  a  fierce  battle  was  in 
progress,  watched  by  thousands  of  spectators  on  the 
coast  cliffs  of  France. 

For  nearly  an  hour  the  ships  circled  round  each 
other,  at  close  range,  both  firing  with  great  rapidity. 
But  the  gunnery  of  the  Kearsarge  was  careful  and 
effective,  while  most  of  the  shot  of  the  Alabama  went 
wild.  In  the  end  the  Alabama,  in  a  sinking  state, 
headed  for  the  shore;  but  the  Kearsarge  ran  across  her 
bow  in  position  to  rake  her,  and  Semmes  hauled  down 
his  flag.  In  a  short  time  the  noted  privateer  went  to 
the  bottom,  though  not  before  her  crew  was  taken  off, 
the  captain  and  some  of  his  men  being  rescued  by  the 
British  steam-yacht  Deerhound  and  carried  off  to 
England,  where  the  bold  Semmes  was  made  a  hero 
of  and  presented  with  a  sword  to  replace  the  one  he 
had  lost. 

Our  next  story  of  the  war  has  to  do  with  a  Con- 
federate ironclad,  a  class  of  vessel  which  the  Confed- 


92  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

erate  government  had  proved  active  in  building,  but 
with  which  they  had  singularly  ill  success.  We  have 
chronicled  the  fate  of  the  Merrimac,  the  Manassas, 
the  Louisiana,  and  the  Tennessee.  There  was  still 
another,  the  Albemarle,  built  by  a  year  and  a  half  of 
labor  on  the  Roanoke  River  and  destroyed  in  one 
momentous  minute  by  a  daring  Union  volunteer. 

The  Albemarle,  plated  with  four  inches  of  iron,  had 
two  fights  with  Union  ships,  and  put  to  flight  all  her 
antagonists  except  one,  sending  the  latter  to  the 
bottom.  Her  prowess  forced  the  surrender  of  Ply- 
mouth to  the  Confederate  troops.  As  a  second  ship 
of  the  same  character  was  building  on  Tar  River,  the 
Albemarle  was  now  laid  up  beside  a  wharf  at  Ply- 
mouth to  await  this  coming  consort.  It  was  expected 
that  the  two  of  them  would  be  able  to  drive  off  the 
blockading  fleet.  At  this  critical  juncture  Lieutenant 
William  B.  Gushing,  a  young  man  of  twenty-one, 
asked  permission  to  attempt  to  destroy  the  dangerous 
ironclad.  His  plan  was  approved  and  the  privilege 
given  him  to  try. 

On  the  27th  of  October,  1864,  the  enterprise  took 
place.  In  a  torpedo-boat,  consisting  of  a  steam- 
launch  carrying  its  torpedo  at  the  end  of  a  long  spar, 
he  started  up  the  Roanoke,  a  boat-load  of  armed  men 
being  towed  behind.  It  was  a  dark  night.  The 
launch  with  her  tow  moved  silently  up-stream.  Un- 
seen and  unheard,  they  reached  the  front  of  Plymouth 
and  approached  the  fated  ship.  To  the  disappoint- 
ment of  the  daring  adventurer  he  discovered  that  the 
Albemarle  was  guarded  by  a  raft  of  logs  stretching  so 
far  out  that  the  spar  could  not  reach  her  side. 

Before  any  plan  of  action  could  be  made  the  launch 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  93 

was  seen  and  hailed  by  the  sentinels  on  the  wharf,  and, 
no  reply  being  given,  a  fire  of  musketry  came  from 
shore  and  ship,  while  a  bonfire  of  pine-logs  was  kindled 
and  the  ship's  crew  was  called  to  quarters.  The  ex- 
pedition might  fairly  have  been  called  a  failure,  but 
Gushing  was  not  that  kind  of  man.  Circling  out  into 
the  stream,  he  drove  the  launch  at  full  speed  on  the 
boom  of  logs.  The  bow  rode  up  their  sides,  slippery 
through  their  long  immersion,  and  forced  them  down; 
the  spar  passed  under  the  hull  of  the  ironclad  and  was 
lifted  till  it  touched  her  side;  and,  as  a  cannon  of  the 
ship  boomed  above  their  heads,  Gushing  pulled  the 
string  connected  with  the  trigger  of  the  torpedo,  and 
a  louder  roar  answered  from  below.  The  Albemarle 
was  lifted  for  an  instant,  and  then  sank  to  the  muddy 
bottom  of  the  stream,  destroyed  in  a  moment's  touch. 

Of  the  crew  of  the  launch,  only  two  were  killed,  the 
others,  except  two,  being  captured.  One  of  these 
two  was  the  gallant  Gushing,  who  leaped  overboard 
and  swam  to  the  marshy  shore  below.  Creeping 
through  marsh  grass,  corn-field,  and  woods,  he  gradu- 
ally reached  a  safe  distance,  and  finally  captured  a 
boat  on  a  creek  below,  by  the  aid  of  which  he  made 
his  way  off  to  the  fleet,  having  performed  as  gallant  a 
deed  as  took  place  in  the  whole  war. 

We  have  nearly  completed  the  record  of  the  active 
efforts  of  the  navy  during  the  Civil  War,  though  the 
blockade  of  Charleston  presented  some  interesting 
events.  To  the  Confederate  ironclads  named  must  be 
added  two  more,  the  Palmetto  State  and  the  Chicora, 
built  at  Charleston  and  in  appearance  resembling  the 
Merrimac.  By  a  sudden  dash  they  forced  the  sur- 
render of  two  vessels  of  the  blockading  fleet,  but  were 


94  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

not  able  to  take  them  into  port.  Later  on  two  moni- 
tors had  an  encounter  in  Wilmington  River  with 
another  iron-clad  steamer  called  the  Atlanta,  which 
was  captured  after  a  fifteen  minutes'  fight. 

The  Confederates  had  proved  as  active  as  the  Fed- 
eralists, considering  their  comparative  opportunities, 
in  building  ironclads.  They  had  the  credit  of  inaugu- 
rating a  new  method  of  warfare,  that  with  torpedoes, 
which  has  now  become  so  important  an  element  of 
naval  war.  We  have  described  the  work  of  the  planted 
torpedoes  in  Mobile  Bay.  The  torpedo-boat  was  also 
invented  by  them,  and  tried  at  Charleston,  before 
Cushing's  successful  employment  of  this  new  arm.  A 
number  of  small  torpedo-boats  were  built,  which 
gained  the  distinctive  name  of  "  Davids"  (from  the 
story  of  David  and  Goliath),  the  torpedo-case,  contain- 
ing about  one  hundred  pounds  of  powder,  being 
carried  on  a  spar  in  front  of  the  boat.  An  explosive 
mixture  was  placed  in  tubes  of  lead,  and  prepared  to 
go  off  at  a  touch.  The  first  use  of  these  boats  was  on 
the  night  of  October  5,  1863,  when  a  torpedo  was  ex- 
ploded against  the  side  of  the  New  Ironsides.  It 
struck  the  ship's  armor,  to  which  it  did  no  serious 
damage. 

Another  of  these  boats,  which  it  was  claimed  could 
move  under  water  for  half  an  hour  without  injury  to 
the  crew, — and  which  had  drowned  several  crews  in 
the  experiment, — struck  and  sunk  the  Housatonic  on 
February  17,  1864,  the  torpedo-boat  going  down  with 
her  victim.  This,  with  the  fruitless  efforts  of  the  fleet 
to  silence  the  defences  of  Charleston,  ends  the  naval 
record  of  the  war  for  that  locality,  with  the  exception 
of  the  sinking  by  a  torpedo  of  the  monitor  Patapsco, 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  95 

January  15,  1865.  Lieutenant  (now  Admiral)  Samp- 
son was  senior  officer  of  this  vessel,  and  was  highly 
commended  for  his  courage  in  the  affair. 

The  final  naval  expedition  of  the  war  was  sent  for 
the  reduction  of  Fort  Fisher,  at  the  mouth  of  Cape 
Fear  River,  guarding  the  approach  to  Wilmington, 
North  Carolina,  the  last  fort  open  to  the  enterprise 
of  blockade-runners.  It  was  a  strongly  built  and  well- 
armed  work,  and  long  defied  capture  by  the  Union 
forces.  A  peculiar  plan  for  its  reduction  was  put  into 
effect  on  the  night  of  December  23,  1864,  when,  at 
the  suggestion  of  General  B.  F.  Butler,  a  ship  con- 
taining more  than  two  hundred  tons  of  powder  was 
exploded  about  three  hundred  yards  from  the  fort. 
It  was  expected  that  the  frightful  concussion  would 
destroy  the  works,  or  at  least  so  affect  the  garrison 
that  a  determined  attack  would  be  successful.  It  did 
neither,  and  the  subsequent  bombardment  by  the  fleet 
proved  of  no  effect. 

On  January  13,  1865,  Admiral  Porter,  in  command 
of  the  fleet,  made  another  determined  assault  upon  the 
fort,  having  first  landed  General  Terry  with  six  thou- 
sand men.  All  that  day  and  the  next  the  ships  poured 
shot  and  shell  into  the  fort,  and  on  the  morning  of 
the  1 5th  opened  fire  again,  covering  the  movement  of 
the  land  forces,  which  dashed  upon  and  carried  the 
works.  There  were  forty-two  ships  in  the  bombard- 
ing fleet,  six  of  them  being  ironclads.  Of  the  latter, 
five  were  monitors,  and  the  other  was  the  New  Iron- 
sides, of  which  something  further  may  be  said. 

We  have  described  the  various  efforts  to  build  iron- 
clad vessels  made  by  the  Confederate  government,  and 
the  work  done  by  them,  and  also  spoken  of  the  Union 


96  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

ironclads  brought  into  service  on  the  Western  rivers. 
For  coast  service  a  number  of  monitors  were  built, 
on  the  plan  of  Ericsson's  first  famous  boat,  the  name 
of  which  they  took  as  a  distinctive  title. 

The  New  Ironsides  was  the  first  government  vessel 
built  at  the  now  famous  ship-yard  of  the  Cramps,  in 
Philadelphia.  This  vessel  was  ship-rigged,  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  feet  long,  fifty-eight  feet  six  inches 
beam,  and  drew  about  sixteen  feet.  She  had  engines 
of  eighteen  hundred  horse-power,  and  under  sails  and 
steam  could  make  about  eleven  knots.  Her  battery 
was  composed  of  sixteen  n-inch  Dahlgren  guns  and 
two  2OO-pounder  Parrott  rifles  pivoted  forward  and 
aft,  all  being  protected  by  sloping  armor  four  inches 
thick.  She  took  part  in  several  actions  against  Fort 
Sumter,  withstanding  the  heaviest  guns  of  the  fort, 
and  was  struck  in  vain  by  a  Confederate  torpedo-boat. 
At  Fort  Fisher  she  was  anchored  about  six  hundred 
yards  from  a  bastion  mounted  with  two  I5o-pounder 
Armstrong  rifles.  Yet  she  endured  their  fire  without 
serious  injury,  finally  dismounting  one  of  them  and 
silencing  the  other.  No  ship  of  the  war-time  navy 
saw  more  active  service  and  none  took  part  in  so  many 
actions.  Her  fate  came  upon  her  after  the  end  of  the 
war,  when  in  1866,  while  lying  in  ordinary  at  League 
Island,  she  took  fire  and  burned  to  the  water's  edge. 

In  conclusion  of  this  part  of  our  subject,  we  may 
return  to  the  story  of  the  blockade-runners,  which 
presents  some  features  of  interest.  Although,  as  was 
said,  the  government  had  gathered  before  the  end  of 
the  war  a  large  fleet  of  blockaders,  these  were  largely 
composed  of  yachts,  tugs,  coastwise  steamers,  and 
other  types  of  vessels  that  could  be  picked  up  in  our 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  97 

ports,  forming  a  curious  aggregation  of  water  craft. 
In  fact,  one  of  the  richest  prizes  of  the  war,  the 
steamer  Circassian,  was  captured  by  a  Fulton  ferry- 
boat. The  fleet  improved  in  character  as  time  went 
on,  but  during  1862,  1863,  and  the  early  part  of  1864 
the  blockade-runners  pursued  a  profitable  career,  their 
daring  exploits  presenting  many  tales  of  excitement 
and  romance.  The  profits  of  the  trade  were  great,  the 
cotton  that  was  taken  out  commanded  a  high  price  in 
British  ports,  and  the  bold  captains  of  these  fleet  craft 
did  not  hesitate  to  make  an  impudent  dash  through 
the  thick  of  the  blockading  fleet,  risking  death  or  cap- 
ture in  the  allurement  of  the  promised  gain. 

More  than  one  of  the  captains  of  these  craft  gained 
wide-spread  fame  for  skill  and  daring,  among  them 
"the  notorious  Captain  Roberts,"  who  had  been  in 
the  British  navy,  and  made  many  narrow  escapes  in 
his  risky  ventures.  His  real  name  was  Hobart,  and 
he  afterwards,  under  the  title  of  Hobart  Pacha,  came 
to  the  command  of  the  Turkish  fleet.  Captain  Wil- 
kinson, in  the  Giraffe,  a  Clyde-built  steamer,  ran  the 
blockade  twenty-one  times  within  ten  months,  and 
carried  in  and  out  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars' 
worth  of  goods.  Captain  Murphy-Aynsley,  afterwards 
an  admiral  in  the  British  navy,  was  one  of  the  most 
intrepid  of  blockade-runners,  and  on  one  occasion 
carried  his  vessel,  the  Venus,  through  the  blockading 
fleet  and  into  Wilmington  in  broad  daylight. 

At  first  worn-out  old  boats  were  used,  that  would  be 
little  loss  if  captured,  but  as  the  blockade  grew  more 
effective  this  system  proved  unprofitable,  and  the  swift- 
est and  best-appointed  boats  were  employed, — long, 
low,  light-draught,  side-wheel  steamers,  of  good 

7 


98  THE  NATION'S  NAVY. 

freight-carrying  capacity,  their  hulls  rising  but  a  few 
feet  above  the  water  and  painted  a  dull  gray  or  lead 
color  so  as  to  render  them  difficult  to  see.  Anthracite 
coal  was  used,  to  avoid  smoke,  while  their  telescopic 
funnels  might  be  lowered  flush  with  the  deck.  Gliding 
noiselessly  on  through  moonless  nights,  and  before 
the  idea  of  the  search-light  was  born,  it  is  no  wonder 
that  many  such  craft  managed  to  slip  safely  into 
harbor. 

Nassau,  in  the  Bahamas,  was  the  starting-point,  and 
this  sleepy  old  town  for  the  time  awakened  to  become 
a  bustling  and  prosperous  city.  All  the  principal 
southern  ports  were  entered,  but  principally  Wilming- 
ton, the  mouth  of  whose  river  was  guarded  by  Fort 
Fisher,  while  its  two  inlets  gave  a  double  chance  for 
a  successful  dash. 

"The  start  from  Nassau  or  Bermuda  was  usually 
made  at  such  a  time  that  a  moonless  night  and  high 
tide  could  be  secured  for  running  in.  A  sharp  look- 
out was  kept  for  cruisers  on  the  outside  blockade,  and 
if  one  was  met  the  blockade-runner  took  to  his  heels 
and  usually  got  away.  He  never  hove  to  when 
ordered,  and  in  a  tight  pinch  would  rather  heave  his 
valuable  cargo  overboard,  or  even  run  ashore,  than  be 
captured.  The  most  hazardous  part  of  the  whole  run 
was  when  the  runner  had  got  fairly  close  in  shore  and 
had  to  make  the  final  dash  for  the  bar.  The  fleet  of 
blockaders  was  always  thick  just  before  the  bar,  and 
the  chances  were  manifold  that  the  runner  would  get 
pocketed,  sunk  by  a  shell,  or  else  driven  ashore  and 
burned." 

The  total  number  of  prizes  brought  in  during  the 
war  was  eleven  hundred  and  forty-nine,  while  a  large 


THE  NATION'S  NAVY.  99 

number  of  vessels  were  sunk  or  destroyed,  their 
cargoes,  at  a  low  estimate,  being  valued  at  $31,000,000. 
To  make  the  business  profitable,  therefore,  the  number 
of  successful  vessels  engaged  must  have  been  great. 
Many  exciting  stories  of  their  adventures  could  be 
told,  but  we  shall  content  ourselves  with  one  story 
of  a  capture,  told  by  J.  R.  Seley,  an  old  naval  officer, 
in  his  book  on  blockading.  He  says, — 

"  One  of  the  prettiest  captures  made  off  Wilmington 
was  that  of  the  Ella  and  Anna,  by  Acting  Master  J. 
B.  Breck,  of  the  Niphon,  in  November,  1863.  /  Breck 
was  an  officer  of  pluck  and  resource,  and  he  won  a 
name  for  himself  by  his  dashing  successes  on  the 
Wilmington  blockade.  About  five  o'clock  on  the 
morning  of  November  9,  as  he  was  returning  along  the 
shore  from  a  chase  near  Masonborough  Inlet,  he  dis- 
covered a  side-wheel  steamer  to  the  northward,  steal- 
ing along  towards  the  entrance  of  the  river.  Outside 
of  her  lay  a  blockader,  which  opened  on  her  with 
grape,  and  the  blockade-runner,  finding  herself  inter- 
cepted, steered  directly  for  the  Niphon  with  the  in- 
tention of  running  her  down.  Breck  saw  the  inten- 
tion, and  fixed  on  his  plan  in  an  instant.  Heading 
for  the  steamer,  he  formed  his  boarders  on  the  bow. 
The  blockade-runner  dashed  on  at  full  speed  under  a 
shower  of  canister,  and  struck  him  a  blow  that  carried 
away  his  bowsprit  and  stem.  In  a  moment  his  board- 
ers were  over  the  rail  and  on  the  deck  of  the  blockade- 
runner,  and  in  a  few  seconds  made  her  a  prize.  She 
had  on  board  three  hundred  cases  of  Austrian  rifles 
and  a  quantity  of  saltpetre,  and  the  prize  sales  netted 
$180,000.  The  Ella  and  Anna  was  taken  into  the 


ioo  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

service,  and  in  the  next  year,  under  her  new  name  of 
the  Malvern,  became  famous  as  the  flag-ship  of  Ad- 
miral Porter/' 


CHAPTER    VI. 

RECENT  NAVAL  HISTORY. 

THE  close  of  the  Civil  War  left  the  United  States  ill 
provided  with  ships  likely  to  be  of  utility  in  the  new 
conditions  of  warfare  which  that  conflict  had  devel- 
oped. In  addition  to  the  river-defence  ironclads,  built 
for  use  on  the  Mississippi  and  its  tributaries,  three 
types  of  vessels  for  open  sea  use  had  been  devised 
during  the  war.  Two  of  these,  the  Monitor  and  the 
New  Ironsides,  have  been  described.  The  third, 
known  as  the  Galena,  proved  a  failure,  her  2^-inch 
plates  being  fastened  on  in  so  insecure  a  manner  that 
they  were  easily  racked  or  broken.  This  vessel  proved 
her  unsuitability  in  her  first  engagement  before  Fort 
Darling.  The  New  Ironsides  was  burned,  as  we  have 
said,  immediately  after  the  end  of  the  war,  leaving  the 
monitors  alone  to  represent  our  protected  navy.  A 
considerable  number  of  vessels  of  this  type  had  been 
built,  and  of  these  no  less  than  thirteen  still  remained 
to  be  again  called  into  service  after  being  laid  up  in 
ordinary  for  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century. 

The  Dictator  and  Puritan,  ordered  later  from  Mr. 
Ericsson,  were  designed  by  him  to  be  sea-going  ves- 
sels of  high  speed  and  great  coal-carrying  capacity. 
Of  these,  the  Dictator  was  completed,  but  only  to  dis- 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  101 

appoint  the  hopes  of  her  builder,  she  being  found  to 
be  much  heavier  than  expected  and  to  sink  so  deeply 
as  to  have  only  two-thirds  the  proposed  freeboard,  or 
height  above  water.  And  the  intended  sixteen  knots 
of  speed  sank  to  nine  knots  on  her  trial  trip.  The 
Puritan  was  left  unfinished. 

At  the  end  of  the  war,  however,  the  monitor  idea 
still  controlled  the  counsels  of  the  Navy  Department, 
and  orders  were  given  for  the  building  of  four  sea- 
going ironclads  of  this  type,  to  be  named  the  Mian- 
tonomoh,  the  Monadnock,  the  Amphitrite,  and  the 
Terror.  These  were  to  be  double  turreted,  to  carry 
6-inch  side  armor,  and  to  be  protected  by  twelve 
inches  of  iron  on  the  turrets.  Of  these  vessels,  the 
Miantonomoh  proved  her  sea-worthiness  by  safely 
crossing  to  and  returning  from  England.  They  had 
been  constructed  of  wood,  and  in  1874  were  in  such 
a  state  that  it  was  decided  to  break  them  up  and  re- 
build them  in  iron.  It  was  this  decision  that  gave 
rise  to  the  monitors  of  the  same  names  which  form 
part  of  our  existing  steel-clad  navy.  The  unfinished 
Puritan  is  also  represented  by  an  existing  monitor  of 
larger  size  ordered  at  the  same  time. 

As  most  of  these  vessels  were  not  completed  and  put 
into  commission  until  1896,  and  the  war-time  monitors 
lay  in  ordinary  until  1898,  the  United  States  navy  was 
left  for  many  years  destitute  of  sea-going  vessels  of 
utility  in  case  of  war.  For  twenty  years,  while  the 
maritime  nations  of  Europe  were  actively  engaged  in 
building  fleets  of  powerful  ironclads  and  making 
countless  experiments  with  guns  and  armor,  this 
country  lay  supine,  the  wooden  ships  that  emerged 
from  the  war  being  her  sole  representatives  upon  the 


102  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

seas.  Some  of  these,  under  the  admirable  manage- 
ment of  Farragut,  had  won  fame  in  the  Civil  War, 
but  the  best  of  them  could  not  have  remained  afloat  for 
ten  minutes  before  the  powerful  war  machines  which 
were  beginning  to  dominate  the  seas.  Useful  still  in 
times  of  peace,  they  had  outlived  their  usefulness  in 
war. 

The  steam-vessels  of  this  fleet  which  remain  ser- 
viceable include  only  the  Hartford,  Lancaster,  and 
Monocacy,  while  half  a  dozen  sailing  vessels  continue 
in  special  service,  and  there  are  rather  more  than  a 
dozen  vessels  unfit  for  ocean  use.  Chief  among  the 
latter  is  the  war-worn  veteran,  the  Constitution,  which 
was  built  in  1797,  and  carried  off  the  highest  honors 
of  the  war  of  1812.  She  celebrated  her  centennial  on 
October  21, 1897,  and  now  lies,  housed  over,  at  Boston, 
kept  as  a  precious  relic  of  the  early  days  of  the  re- 
public. 

During  the  interval  that  has  elapsed  since  the  war 
the  officers  of  the  American  navy  have  made  their 
mark  in  more  than  one  region  of  the  world,  particu- 
larly in  the  Arctic  seas,  where  they  have  played  an 
important  part  in  the  work  of  exploration.  Foremost 
among  these  was  Lieutenant  De  Long,  who  served 
in  an  expedition  to  Northern  Greenland  in  1874,  and 
in  1879  set  sail  for  the  Arctic  Ocean,  via  Behring's 
Straits,  in  command  of  the  ill-fated  exploring  ship 
Jeannette,  which  was  crushed  in  the  ice  in  June,  1881. 
The  story  of  his  brave  struggle  for  life  and  the  heroic 
rescue  of  the  survivors  of  the  party  by  one  of  their  com- 
panions, Engineer  Melville,  belongs  to  the  romance 
of  Arctic  adventure.  Lieutenant  Greely,  who  led  the 
next  expedition  to  the  north,  was  an  army  officer,  but 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  103 

several  naval  expeditions  were  sent  north  for  his 
rescue,  which  was  at  length  achieved  in  1884  by  Win- 
field  S.  Schley,  Commodore  of  the  flying  squadron 
of  the  American  navy  in  the  war  with  Spain.  One 
further  narrative  of  hardihood  and  adventure  in  the 
Arctic  regions  remains  to  be  told,  that  of  Lieutenant 
Robert  E.  Peary,  of  the  American  navy,  who  in  1892 
made  a  brilliant  sled  journey  over  the  interior  ice-cap 
of  far  north  Greenland  to  the  eastern  coast,  discover- 
ing a  range  of  land  and  sea  never  before  seen  by  man. 
He  repeated  this  daring  adventure  in  1895,  and  in 
1898,  under  leave  of  absence  from  the  navy,  returned 
to  the  Arctic  seas,  to  begin  a  series  of  journeys  to- 
wards the  pole,  which  were  to  be  continued  for  years 
if  necessary. 

To  return  to  the  more  direct  history  of  the  United 
States  navy  during  the  recent  period,  we  may  instance 
the  seizure  of  Canadian  fur-sealers  in  1887,  which  led 
to  a  dispute  with  Great  Britain  that  has  since  then 
been  settled  by  arbitration.  In  1889  the  history  of 
our  ships  was  marked  by  a  disastrous  event.  On 
March  16  of  that  year  there  lay  in  the  harbor  of  Apia, 
in  the  Samoan  Islands,  a  number  of  American,  Ger- 
man, and  British  war-vessels,  those  of  this  country 
and  Great  Britain  having  been  sent  thither  in  conse- 
quence of  the  efforts  of  Germany  to  gain  a  controlling 
influence  in  those  islands.  On  these  vessels,  at  the 
date  named,  suddenly  fell  one  of  the  terrific  hurricanes 
which  at  times  visit  the  Pacific  waters;  and  when  the 
winds  fell  the  whole  fleet  lay  wrecked  with  the  ex- 
ception of  the  British  steamer  Calliope,  whose  power- 
ful engines  had  forced  her  to  sea  in  the  face  of  the 
gale.  Of  the  American  vessels,  the  Vandalia  was 


104  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

wrecked  on  a  coral  reef  in  the  harbor,  the  Trenton 
was  hurled  on  the  beach,  and  the  Nipsic  was  similarly 
driven  ashore,  losing  her  rudder  and  screw.  The  loss 
of  these  vessels  was  total  except  in  the  case  of  the 
Nipsic,  which  was  afterwards  floated  and  repaired.  In 
this  disaster  more  than  fifty  officers  and  sailors  lost 
their  lives.  The  Germans  lost  three  vessels  and  a 
considerable  number  of  men. 

In  1890  General  Barrundia,  a  citizen  of  Guatemala, 
and  formerly  minister  of  war  of  that  republic,  became 
involved  in  an  unsuccessful  conspiracy,  and,  pursued 
by  the  legitimate  authorities,  embarked  as  a  passenger 
on  an  American  packet  steamer,  the  Acapulco.  The 
Guatemalan  minister  of  foreign  affairs  demanded  his 
surrender,  but  the  captain  of  the  Acapulco,  unwilling 
to  yield  his  passenger  to  certain  death,  appealed  to 
Commander  Reiter,  of  the  Thetis  and  the  Ranger, 
two  American  war-vessels  in  the  harbor,  for  protec- 
tion. This  Reiter  declined  to  give,  on  the  plea  that 
he  had  no  power  to  take  such  action  in  a  foreign  port 
without  the  permission  of  the  naval  authorities  of  the 
country  concerned.  The  result  was  tragical.  An 
officer  with  a  squad  of  soldiers  boarded  the  Acapulco 
for  Barrundia's  arrest,  when  the  unfortunate  fugitive, 
knowing  that  death  awaited  him,  rushed  from  the 
cabin  and  fired  a  pistol  at  the  officer  and  the  captain 
of  the  steamer.  He  was  at  once  shot  dead  by  the 
soldiers. 

This  affair  caused  much  indignation  in  the  United 
States  over  what  was  considered  a  violation  of  the 
right  of  asylum,  and  Reiter  was  sharply  disciplined  by 
the  Navy  Department  for  his  action.  Sober  second 
thought,  however,  put  the  matter  in  a  different  light, 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  105 

and  Reiter  was  restored  to  duty  and  the  stigma  upon 
his  fair  name  removed. 

The  next  event  with  which  the  navy  was  concerned 
took  place  in  1891.  At  that  time  there  was  an  insur- 
rection in  Chili,  which  had  made  such  headway  against 
the  legitimate  authorities  as  to  give  the  insurrectionists 
control  of  the  port  of  Valparaiso  and  of  a  number  of 
vessels,  one  of  which  was  sent  to  San  Francisco  for  a 
cargo  of  arms  and  munitions  of  war.  The  sailing  of 
this  vessel,  the  Itata,  with  her  cargo  of  contraband 
material,  was  forbidden  by  the  American  authorities, 
such  an  act  being  in  defiance  of  our  obligations  of 
neutrality.  But  the  Chilian  captain,  in  disdain  of  the 
authorities,  set  sail,  carrying  with  him  the  port  officer 
left  on  guard. 

This  open  defiance  of  the  United  States  was  not 
relished,  and  the  Charleston,  one  of  our  new  cruisers, 
was  ordered  to  pursue  and  bring  back  the  defiant  rebel 
craft.  The  Charleston  was  the  faster  vessel  and  made 
a  sharp  pursuit,  diversified  with  an  effort  to  stop  her 
by  the  Chilian  cruiser  Esmeralda,  which  crossed  her 
path  and  threatened  hostilities.  The  gun-crews  of  the 
Charleston  stood  eagerly  behind  their  shotted  pieces, 
waiting  in  grim  determination  the  word  to  fire.  This 
word  did  not  come;  the  Esmeralda  was  satisfied  with 
the  show  of  teeth  by  her  antagonist  and  withdrew, 
and  the  Charleston  kept  on.  her  way,  running  the  Itata 
into  harbor  farther  down  the  coast,  where  her  captain 
surrendered  her  to  the  American  representatives. 

This  event  created  a  sentiment  of  hostility  against 
this  country  among  the  Chilian  insurrectionists,  which 
was  increased  by  their  suspicion  of  complicity  of  the 
United  States  minister,  Egan,  with  the  constituted 


106  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

authorities  of  the  State.  A  serious  affair  resulted. 
On  October  16,  1891,  a  party  of  sailors  and  petty 
officers  from  the  cruiser  Baltimore,  being  on  shore 
leave  in  Valparaiso,  were  attacked  by  a  violent  mob 
of  citizens.  The  unarmed  sailors,  being  far  outnum- 
bered by  their  assailants  and  undefended  by  the  police, 
sought  safety  in  flight,  but  two  of  them  were  killed 
and  a  number  seriously  wounded  by  clubs  and  stones 
in  the  hands  of  the  populace. 

A  judicial  inquiry  was  made  into  this  affair  by  the 
Chilian  authorities,  but  it  was  dismissed  as  trivial,  the 
soldiers  being  blamed  as  drunk  and  disorderly.  Com- 
mander Schley,  of  the  Baltimore,  made  a  very  different 
report,  in  which  he  exonerated  the  sailors  from  blame, 
and  indignation  ran  high  in  the  United  States.  It 
was  added  to  by  the  action  of  the  Chilian  Secretary  of 
State,  who  issued  a  circular  couched  in  offensive  lan- 
guage, in  which  he  accused  the  American  minister  and 
naval  officers  of  false  statements.  For  the  time  being 
an  active  war  spirit  prevailed  in  this  country,  and  war- 
vessels  were  prepared  and  sent  out.  This  show  of 
hostile  purpose  changed  the  tone  of  the  Chilian  au- 
thorities; an  apology  was  made,  the  offensive  circular 
withdrawn,  and  indemnity  paid  to  the  families  of  the 
victims.  Thus  ended  the  most  warlike  incident  in 
American  history  between  the  Civil  War  and  the  date 
in  question. 

In  1894  another  event  occurred  in  which  American 
readiness  in  dealing  with  a  critical  situation  was 
strikingly  shown.  At  that  time  a  revolt,  confined  to 
the  navy,  was  in  progress  in  Brazil,  the  purpose  of  the 
revolutionists  being,  secondarily,  to  restore  the  mon- 
archy, and,  primarily,  to  advance  the  personal  interests 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  107 

of  the  leaders  in  the  insurrection.  The  Brazilian 
navy  was  in  possession  of  the  revolutionists,  who  held 
the  bay  of  Rio  Janeiro,  where  much  interference  was 
made  with  the  movements  of  peaceful  merchantmen. 
The  officers  of  the  foreign  war-ships  in  the  harbor, 
with  the  exception  of  the  Germans,  favored  the  mo- 
narchical designs  of  the  revolutionists,  and  practically 
accorded  them  the  rights  of  belligerents,  though  they 
had  not  a  foot  of  land  under  their  sway.  Saldanha  da 
Gama,  the  rebel  leader,  threatened  to  fire  on  any  ship 
that  should  go  to  the  piers  to  discharge  its  cargo,  and 
merchantmen  were  obliged  to  lie  out  in  the  bay  and 
await  the  end  of  the  war,  despite  the  fact  that  yellow 
fever  was  decimating  their  crews. 

The  senior  American  officer  present  failed  to  inter- 
fere with  this  state  of  affairs  and  refused  protection  to 
merchantmen.  Such  was  the  condition  of  things  when 
Admiral  A.  E.  K.  Benham  appeared  upon  the  scene, 
and  took  in  the  situation.  He  at  once  told  the  Ameri- 
can captains  to  go  to  the  piers  and  trust  to  him  to 
protect  them  from  harm  or  revenge  them  if  injured. 
Inspirited  by  this  promise,  Captain  Blackford,  of  the 
bark  Amy,  and  two  other  captains,  gave  notice  on 
Sunday,  January  29,  1894,  that  they  would  take  their 
ships  in  to  the  wharves  on  the  following  morning.  Da 
Gama,  hearing  of  this,  made  proclamation  that  he 
would  fire  on  any  vessel  that  ventured  to  do  so,  and 
a  conflict  seemed  impending.  Da  Gama  had  a  diver- 
sified lot  of  vessels  under  his  command,  most  of  them 
worthless  as  ships  of  war,  but  carrying  fairly  good 
guns.  But  among  them  was  one  good  monitor,  the 
Aquidaban,  which  was  fully  capable  of  giving  a  good 
account  of  itself  if  put  to  the  test.  There  was  a 


io8  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

state  of  excitement  in  Rio  Janeiro  harbor  on  the  dawn 
of  that  Monday  morning.  Da  Gama  might  be  as  good 
as  his  word,  and  the  commanders  of  the  war-vessels 
of  other  nations  looked  anxiously  on  to  see  if  the 
American  admiral  would  hold  fast  to  his  position. 
Day  had  hardly  dawned  before  active  preparations 
were  visible  on  the  small  American  squadron,  which 
was  soon  cleared  for  action,  the  cruiser  Detroit  taking 
a  station  from  which  she  could  command  two  of  Da 
Gama's  vessels,  the  Guanabara  and  the  Trajano,  if 
they  should  venture  to  meddle  with  the  Amy. 

When  the  Detroit  reached  her  station  the  Amy 
began  to  warp  in  towards  the  pier.  From  the  Guana- 
bara came  a  warning  musket-shot.  In  an  instant 
more  a  ball  from  the  Detroit  hurtled  across  the  bow 
of  the  Brazilian  vessel,  followed  by  another  that  struck 
her  side.  These  were  in  the  way  of  preliminary  ad- 
monition. Seeing  a  couple  of  tugs  working  inward 
as  if  with  purpose  to  ram  his  vessel,  Captain  Brown- 
sen  took  the  Detroit  in  between  the  two  Brazilian 
war-ships,  occupying  a  position  that  would  have  en- 
abled him  to  rake  and  sink  them  and  their  supporting 
tugs  at  the  same  time. 

This  decisive  action  ended  the  affair.  No  further 
shot  came  from  a  Brazilian  gun,  and  the  Amy,  fol- 
lowed by  the  other  two  vessels,  made  her  way  un- 
harmed to  the  wharves.  The  example  was  an  infec- 
tious one.  Before  night  had  fallen  the  merchantmen 
under  British  and  other  foreign  flags  were  hastening 
in  the  wake  of  the  Americans,  and  the  two  warning 
shots  from  the  Detroit  proved  to  have  put  an  end  to 
an  "intolerable  situation"  in  Rio  Janeiro  harbor. 

The  history  of  the  American  navy,  previous  to  the 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  109 

outbreak  of  the  war  with  Spain,  ends  with  one  notable 
event, — that  of  the  greatest  disaster  in  its  total  ca- 
reer, and  one  to  which  the  subsequent  war  was  very 
largely  due, — the  destruction  of  the  battle-ship  Maine. 
This  was  of  such  importance  in  its  results  as  to  call 
for  a  fuller  description  than  we  have  given  of  other 
recent  events.  Riots  in  Havana,  Cuba,  which  im- 
perilled the  safety  of  American  residents,  to  whom 
the  Spanish  inhabitants  of  that  city  were  bitterly  hos- 
tile, led  to  the  sending,  on  January  25,  1898,  of  the 
American  battle-ship  Maine  to  the  harbor  of  that  city, 
ostensibly  on  a  friendly  visit,  but  with  the  evident  pur- 
pose of  serving  as  a  defence  and  refuge  for  American 
citizens  in  case  of  peril.  Here  she  was  assigned  by 
the  Spanish  authorities  an  anchorage  at  a  particular 
buoy,  where  she  lay  until  the  night  of  February  15, 
when  in  one  fatal  instant  she  was  hurled  to  destruction 
and  her  crew  into  eternity. 

On  the  morning  of  February  16  the  whole  American 
nation  was  startled  with  the  news  that  during  the 
previous  night  the  Maine  had  been  utterly  destroyed 
by  a  terrific  explosion,  and  then  lay,  a  total  wreck, 
on  the  bottom  of  the  harbor,  with  nearly  all  her  crew 
dead  within  her  rent  and  ruined  hull.  The  explosion 
had  taken  place  about  9.45  of  the  evening  before.  The 
night  was  one  of  intense  darkness.  The  Maine  lay 
at  anchor  about  five  hundred  yards  from  the  arsenal, 
while  about  two  hundred  yards  away  lay  the  Ward 
Line  steamer  City  of  Washington  and  a  little  farther 
off  the  Spanish  cruiser  Alfonso  XII.  Captain  Sigsbee 
was  in  bed  in  his  cabin;  Lieutenant-commander  Wain- 
wright,  the  executive  officer,  was  in  his  own  cabin 
smoking;  the  crew  were  asleep  below;  when,  without 


no  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

an  instant's  warning,  came  the  terrible  explosion  that 
almost  tore  the  vessel  asunder  and  killed  most  of  the 
men,  under  whose  quarters  it  took  place. 

The  force  of  the  explosion  was  so  great  as  to  shake 
the  whole  water  front  of  the  city,  put  out  the  adjacent 
electric  lights,  and  throw  down  many  telegraph  and 
telephone  poles.  Almost  immediately  afterwards  a 
great  flame  broke  out  from  the  wrecked  vessel,  which 
illuminated  the  whole  harbor,  and  showed  to  the 
hurrying  people  on  shore  the  locality  of  the  disaster. 
Search-lights  were  quickly  thrown  upon  the  waters, 
and  boats  were  lowered  in  all  haste  from  the  adjacent 
steamers  and  rowed  rapidly  to  the  ruined  ship.  Cap- 
tain Sigsbee  and  Lieutenant  Wainwright  were  in  a 
minute's  time  on  deck,  the  captain's  first  order  being 
to  a  sailor  to  flood  the  magazine.  The  man  hastened 
away,  did  his  work,  but  failed  to  return.  Death  had 
caught  him  at  his  task. 

All  the  officers  but  two  were  saved,  but  of  the  ship's 
company  of  three  hundred  and  fifty-three  men  only 
forty-eight  escaped  uninjured,  and  the  roll-call  of  the 
dead  in  the  end  reached  two  hundred  and  sixty-six. 

It  need  scarcely  be  said  that  the  news  of  this  terrible 
event  intensified  the  feeling  of  opposition  which  had 
long  prevailed  in  this  country  to  Spain's  methods  in 
Cuba,  and  raised  on  the  instant  a  strong  war  party, 
who  instinctively  laid  the  blame  of  the  disaster  on  the 
government  or  some  of  the  officials  of  Havana.  Cap- 
tain Sigsbee  had  enjoined  patience  until  the  cause  of 
the  disaster  could  be  ascertained,  but  the  people  were 
in  no  patient  mood,  and  the  hostile  sentiment  intensi- 
fied day  by  day. 

A  naval  Court  of  Inquiry  entered  upon  an  exhaus- 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  m 

tive  investigation  of  the  affair,  sending  down  divers 
to  examine  the  hull  of  the  Maine,  then  fast  sinking 
into  the  soft  mud  of  Havana  harbor.  These  divers 
found  abundant  evidence  that  the  cause  of  the  explo- 
sion had  been  external,  the  bottom  of  the  hull  being 
driven  upward  to  the  level  of  the  upper  deck  and  the 
vessel  nearly  torn  in  twain  by  its  force.  The  decision 
of  the  court  was  that,  in  its  opinion,  "  the  Maine  was 
destroyed  by  a  submarine  mine,  which  caused  the  par- 
tial explosion  of  two  or  more  of  her  magazines." 

A  hasty  investigation  made  subsequently  by  the 
Spanish  authorities  led  to  the  opposite  verdict  that  the 
cause  of  the  disaster  was  internal,  and  that  the  de- 
struction of  the  Maine  was  due  to  the  explosion  of  her 
own  magazines.  But  this  hasty  and  apparently  inter- 
ested decision  had  little  or  no  effect  on  American  pub- 
lic opinion,  the  mass  of  the  people  insisting  that  the 
loss  of  the  ship  and  her  crew  was  due  to  Spanish 
malignity,  official  or  private,  and  that  it  was  an  out- 
rage that  called  for  expiation,  not  by  the  slow  method 
of  diplomacy,  but  by  the  quick  and  decisive  method 
of  war.  The  indignation  of  the  people  was  roused  to 
a  pitch  of  intensity  which  had  rarely  been  displayed 
in  the  United  States,  and  though  the  war  that  subse- 
quently came  was  based  on  different  considerations, 
the  popular  sentiment  as  to  its  underlying  cause  was 
clearly  expressed  in  the  war-cry  of  "Remember  the 
Maine,"  the  tocsin  call  of  the  sailors  during  the  great 
naval  combat  at  Manila. 

We  are  not  here  concerned  with  the  naval  events 
of  the  war  that  quickly  succeeded  the  loss  of  the 
Maine,  and  shall  devote  the  remainder  of  this  chapter 
to  a  brief  review  of  the  progress  of  construction  of 


ii2  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

the  new  navy  of  the  United  States,  which  may  be 
looked  upon  as  one  of  the  most  important  circum- 
stances in  American  naval  history. 

Beyond  the  few  early  steps  in  the  building  of  a  navy 
in  accordance  with  the  newly  developed  principles  of 
naval  construction,  and  which  went  no  further  than 
the  placing  on  the  stocks  of  a  number  of  double-tur- 
reted  monitors,  and  the  building  of  a  few  vessels  that 
served  as  compromises  between  the  old  and  the  new 
styles,  among  them  the  Trenton,  lost  in  the  Samoan 
hurricane,  nothing  was  done  until  1881  by  the  United 
States  government  in  the  direction  of  restoring  our 
navy  to  the  position  it  occupied  prior  to  1861,  at  which 
time  its  ships  had  stood  in  general  on  an  equality  with 
the  best  of  their  classes  throughout  the  world.  The 
new  movement  began  in  1881  with  the  appointment, 
by  Secretary  of  the  Navy  William  H.  Hunt,  of  an 
advisory  board  to  consider  what  should  be  done  in 
the  way  of  preparing  a  fleet  in  accordance  with  the 
position  and  needs  of  the  United  States.  At  that  date 
there  were  on  our  naval  list  no  less  than  one  hundred 
and  forty  vessels,  but  of  these,  twenty-five  were  mere 
tugs  and  a  large  number  of  the  others  antiquated  and 
useless.  The  new  monitors  had  made  little  progress 
towards  completion,  the  old  ones  were  slowly  sinking 
into  decay,  and  there  was  not  a  vessel  on  the  whole 
list  fit  for  use  in  case  of  war. 

Rear-Admiral  John  Rodgers  presided  over  the  de- 
liberations of  the  new  board,  which  was  mc.de  up  of 
able  officers  and  issued  a  report  that  commanded  gen- 
eral attention.  This  report  was  decidedly  radical  in  its 
demands,  and  had  its  requirements  been  complied 
with  the  United  States  would  have  had  to-day  few  or 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  113 

no  superiors  in  naval  strength.  It  advised  the  con- 
struction of  a  fleet  composed  of  twenty-one  armored 
battle-ships,  seventy  unarmored  cruisers  of  various 
kinds,  five  rams,  five  torpedo  gunboats,  and  twenty 
torpedo-boats,  all  to  be  built  of  steel.  This  demand 
was  far  in  advance  of  the  time,  the  report  was  quietly 
shelved,  and  the  United  States  navy  is  still  much 
below  the  level  thus  boldly  proposed.  Instead  of  start- 
ing out  on  the  grand  scale  advocated  by  this  far-seeing 
board,  the  Navy  Department  went  cautiously  and 
tentatively  to  work,  feeling  its  way  year  by  year  to 
more  boldness  and  loftier  ideas. 

The  succeeding  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  William  E. 
Chandler,  suggested  that  obsolete  ships  should  not  be 
rebuilt  or  repaired  if  the  expenditure  necessary  should 
exceed  twenty  per  cent,  of  the  original  cost.  This 
recommendation  was  accepted  by  Congress,  and 
proved  of  importance  in  disposing  of  the  time-worn 
hulks  still  dignified  by  the  title  of  the  American  navy. 
During  Secretary  Chandler's  term  of  office  four  ves- 
sels, the  pioneers  of  the  new  navy,  were  built,  on  de- 
signs furnished  by  a  second  advisory  board.  These 
were  the  despatch-boat  Dolphin  and  the  partially  pro- 
tected cruisers  Chicago,  Boston,  and  Atlanta. 

The  construction  of  these  ships  was  undertaken  by 
John  Roach,  in  his  yard  at  Chester,  Pennsylvania,  the 
only  ship-yard  the  government  could  find  at  that  time 
fitted  for  such  work.  Of  these,  only  the  Dolphin  was 
completed  in  this  yard.  What  has  since  been  ac- 
knowledged as  unfair  treatment  by  the  Department 
caused  the  failure  of  Mr.  Roach,  and  the  cruisers  were 
finished  in  government  yards.  At  that  time,  indeed, 
the  United  States  was  destitute  of  facilities  for  build- 

8 


ii4  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

ing  more  than  third-rate  cruisers,  and  to  obtain  armor 
for  these  it  was  necessary  to  go  abroad.  These 
cruisers  were  provided  with  sails,  the  Atlanta  and 
Boston  being  rigged  as  brigs,  the  Chicago  as  a  three- 
masted  schooner.  Of  the  next  two  vessels  built,  the 
Newark  and  Charleston,  ordered  in  1885,  the  former 
was  a  three-masted  schooner,  and  for  the  latter,  the 
first  to  discard  sails  and  possess  only  military  masts, 
the  government  was  obliged  to  go  abroad  for  plans. 

In  regard  to  armament,  the  United  States  was  as 
ill  provided  in  1885  as  it  was  in  regard  to  ships.  At 
that  date  the  armament  of  American  war-ships  con- 
sisted of  smooth-bore  guns,  mainly  of  Q-inch  caliber, 
with  a  few  8-inch  muzzle-loading  rifles  and  60-  and 
8o-pounder  breech-loading  rifles,  the  former  converted 
from  n-inch  smooth-bore  Dahlgrens  and  the  latter 
from  80-  and  loo-pounder  Parrotts,  relics  of  the  Civil 
War.  In  1885  forgings  for  guns  of  more  than  6-inch 
caliber,  together  with  armor-plate,  steel  shafting,  and 
rapid-fire  and  machine-guns,  needed  to  be  obtained 
from  abroad,  and  the  general  opinion  concerning  the 
American  navy  was  in  accordance  with  the  following 
quotation  from  Mr.  Frank  M.  Bennett: 

"  A  sense  of  humiliation  dogged  the  American  naval 
officer  as  he  went  about  his  duty  in  foreign  lands.  In 
the  far  East,  in  the  lesser  countries  along  the  Medi- 
terranean Sea,  and  even  in  the  seaports  of  South 
America,  people  smiled  patronizingly  upon  him  and 
from  a  sense  of  politeness  avoided  speaking  of  naval 
subjects  in  his  presence.  None  but  naval  officers  and 
a  few  Americans  who  happened  to  be  abroad  com- 
prehended just  how  insignificant  and  cheap  the  great 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  115 

republic  appeared  in  the  eyes  of  the  world  at  and 
about  the  time  mentioned." 

In  1885  tne  Navy  Department  came  under  the  con- 
trol of  Secretary  William  C.  Whitney,  and  new  life 
and  activity  were  put  into  this  long  torpid  branch  of 
the  government.  A  considerable  number  of  vessels 
were  ordered  and  efforts  were  made  "to  bring  the  navy 
up  to  the  European  standard  in  all  lines  of  achieve- 
ment. It  was  felt  that  American  workshops  and  work- 
men ought  to  be  fully  competent  to  produce  all  the 
requisites  of  naval  construction,  and  every  encourage- 
ment was  held  out  to  inventors,  manufacturers,  and 
ship-builders  whose  efforts  promised  success. 

Steps  had  been  taken  in  this  direction  in  1883,  when 
the  Gun-Foundry  Board — Rear-Admiral  Simpson 
presiding — visited  the  principal  steel-  and  gun-shops 
at  home  and  abroad  with  the  purpose  of  determining 
the  best  method  of  manufacturing  heavy  ordnance  for 
modern  warfare,  and  in  1884  recommended  that  steel 
forgings  and  materials  for  guns  be  supplied  at  home 
by  private  industry.  The  question  of  producing 
armor-plate  in  this  country  had  up  to  that  time  been 
little  considered,  but  in  1886  proposals  were  issued 
for  the  supply  of  twelve  hundred  and  twenty  tons  of 
gun  forgings  and  six  thousand  seven  hundred  tons  of 
steel  armor,  and  in  May,  1887,  the  contract  for  this 
was  awarded  to  the  Bethlehem  Iron  Company,  the 
first  establishment  in  this  country  in  condition  to  vie 
with  European  workshops  in  the  production  of  such 
material.  The  Carnegie  Works  at  Pittsburg  entered 
the  same  field  in  1890,  contracting  to  supply  the  gov- 
ernment with  five  thousand  nine  hundred  tons  of 
armor-plate. 


n6  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

Since  May,  1887,  when  the  first  contract  for  armor- 
plate  was  signed,  the  United  States  has  developed  re- 
markable facilities  for  naval  construction  of  the  highest 
grade  and  most  massive  character.  American  work- 
men have  turned  out  steel  armor-plates  with  surfaces 
so  tough  and  hard  that  a  drill  cannot  penetrate  them, 
while  the  best  armor-piercing  projectile,  eleven  hun- 
dred pounds  in  weight,  and  "  striking  with  a  force 
sufficient  to  lift  one  thousand  tons  twenty-five  feet, 
crushed  in  the  backing  of  oak,  but  only  dented  the 
plate."  Between  1885  and  1890  this  country  devel- 
oped constructive  plants  capable  of  producing  guns 
of  from  8-  to  1 6-inch  caliber,  steel  armor  of  the  highest 
grade  and  greatest  thickness,  steel  shaftings  for  en- 
gines fit  to  endure  any  strain  likely  to  be  put  upon 
them,  rapid-fire  and  machine  guns,  and  all  other  requi- 
sites for  the  completion  of  modern  battle-ships  of  the 
finest  and  most  powerful  kind,  without  dependence  in 
any  particular  upon  workshops  abroad.  All  this  goes 
to  prove  what  has  been  indicated  in  other  directions, 
— that  the  mechanics  and  inventors  of  the  United 
States  are  equal  to  almost  any  demands,  and  need 
but  a  brief  interval  to  fit  themselves  to  vie  with  the 
best  of  workmen  abroad. 

We  may  fitly  conclude  this  chapter  with  a  detail  of 
the  steps  of  progress  of  the  Navy  Department  in  the 
building  of  the  existing  American  fleet.  The  order 
in  1883  for  the  ships  already  named  was  followed  in 
1885  by  an  act  of  Congress  authorizing  the  construc- 
tion of  the  cruisers  Charleston  and  Newark  and  two 
gunboats,  the  Yorktown  and  the  Petrel.  In  1886  an 
important  step  was  taken  in  an  order  for  the  comple- 
tion of  the  five  monitors,  whose  keels  had  been  laid 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  117 

twelve  years  before.  In  this  year  also  was  authorized 
the  construction  of  the  Texas,  the  first  battle-ship  of 
the  new  navy;  the  armored  cruiser  Maine,  subse- 
quently ranked  with  the  Texas  as  a  second-class  battle- 
ship; the  protected  cruiser  Baltimore;  the  dynamite 
cruiser  Vesuvius,  for  the  utilization  of  the  newly-in- 
vented dynamite  gun;  and  the  Gushing,  our  first 
torpedo-boat,  so  named  from  Lieutenant  Gushing, 
whose  service  with  an  improvised  torpedo-boat  in  the 
Civil  War  has  been  already  detailed. 

The  plans  for  the  Baltimore  were  purchased  abroad, 
though  important  changes  were  made  in  them  by  the 
builders,  the  Cramps,  of  Philadelphia.  The  Texas,  of 
6315,  and  the  Maine,  of  6682  tons  displacement,  were 
the  first  American  ships  ranked  as  battle-ships.  They 
were  built,  however,  with  regard  to  speed,  the  first 
making  a  record  of  17.80  and  the  second  of  17.45 
knots,  these  rates  surpassing  those  possessed  by  or 
estimated  for  any  of  our  larger  battle-ships. 

In  1887  five  vessels  were  authorized  by  Congress, — 
the  Monterey,  the  last  ordered  but,  with  the  exception 
of  the  Miantonomoh,  the  first  completed  of  the  new 
monitors;  the  protected  cruisers  Philadelphia  and  San 
Francisco,  each  built  in  the  city  after  which  it  was 
named;  and  the  gunboats  Concord  and  Bennington, 
built  at  Chester,  Pennsylvania.  The  work  of  con- 
structing a  new  navy  was  now  fairly  under  way,  stirred 
into  life  by  the  inspiring  influence  of  Secretary  Whit- 
ney, and  in  1888  no  less  than  eight  ships  were  author- 
ized. Most  notable  among  these  was  the  armored 
cruiser  New  York,  a  great  advance  in  every  respect 
over  any  cruiser  before  ordered,  and  one  that  has  won 
for  herself  the  high  regard  of  the  American  people. 


n8  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

This  was  due  alike  to  her  speed,  which  reached  the 
high  level  of  21  knots,  her  strong  protection,  and  her 
powerful  armament,  which  nearly  assimilated  her  with 
the  battle-ship  in  powers  of  offence  and  defence.  The 
other  vessels  of  the  year  were  the  protected  cruiser 
Olympia,  Admiral  Dewey's  flag-ship  in  the  recent  war, 
the  protected  cruisers  Cincinnati  and  Raleigh,  the 
cruisers  Detroit,  Marblehead,  and  Montgomery,  and 
the  training-ship  Bancroft. 

With  the  incoming  of  the  new  administration  the 
Navy  Department,  under  Secretary  Tracy,  followed 
the  commendable  example  of  Secretary  Whitney  and 
diligently  pursued  the  work  of  giving  the  country  a 
new  navy.  In  1889,  indeed,  only  three  vessels  were 
ordered,  two  of  them  being  gunboats,  the  Castine  and 
the  Machias,  while  the  third  was  the  most  remarkable 
of  our  vessels,  the  ram  Katahdin  (originally  known  as 
the  Ammen),  the  only  craft  of  its  kind  in  existence, 
with  the  exception  of  the  British  ram  Polyphemus, 
and  one  whose  value  as  a  war-ship  remains  to  be  de- 
monstrated. 

It  was  not  until  1890  that  the  government  took  steps 
to  place  itself  fairly  on  a  level  with  Europe  in  naval 
construction.  Up  to  this  date  our  battle-ships  had 
been  second-class  in  size  and  power,  while  among  our 
cruisers  the  New  York  alone  was  fitted  to  vie  with  the 
best  abroad.  Measures  were  now  taken  to  overcome 
this  defect,  three  first-class  battle-ships  being  ordered 
which  it  was  designed  to  make  equal  in  strength  and 
armament  with  any  in  the  world.  This  purpose  was 
fulfilled  in  the  authorization  of  the  Indiana,  the  Mas- 
sachusetts, and  the  Oregon,  the  first  two  built  by  the 
Cramps  at  Philadelphia  and  the  last  in  the  Union 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  119 

Works  of  San  Francisco,  the  resulting  vessels  being 
fully  competent  to  cope  with  any  now  afloat.  The 
other  vessels  of  the  year  were  the  swift  protected 
cruiser  Columbia  and  the  torpedo-boat  Ericsson.  In 
the  character  of  these  vessels,  built  solely  from  Ameri- 
can plans  and  of  American  material,  the  United  States 
finally  demonstrated  that  it  had  no  superiors  in  the 
world  in  inventive  ability  and  mechanical  skill.  In 
less  than  a  decade  it  had  developed  plants  for  the 
construction  of  as  powerful  ships  as  the  world  pos- 
sessed, and  had  afloat  war-ships  not  surpassed  in  speed 
or  power  to  give  and  take  hard  blows  by  any  ships 
built  abroad,  while  the  Columbia  holds  the  world's 
record  for  continuous  sea-speed  across  the  Atlantic, 
which  she  has  crossed  at  the  average  speed  of  18.41 
knots  for  the  whole  distance.  Her  trial  performance 
yielded  a  speed  of  22.8  knots,  the  highest  record  up 
to  that  date. 

In  1891  naval  construction  fell  off,  only  one  ship, 
the  protected  cruiser  Minneapolis,  a  sister-ship  to  the 
Columbia,  being  authorized.  She  was  built  in  the 
same  yard,  that  of  the  Cramps,  and  on  her  trial  trip 
even  surpassed  the  Columbia  in  speed,  making  a 
record  of  23.07  knots  on  a  four  hours'  run.  The  year 
1892  yielded  two  of  the  finest  ships  in  our  navy,  the 
powerful  sea-going  battle-ship  Iowa  and  the  armored 
cruiser  Brooklyn,  a  companion  vessel  to  the  New 
York,  which  she  surpasses  slightly  in  speed  and  size. 

Three  gunboats,  the  Nashville,  the  Wilmington,  and 
the  Helena,  were  ordered  in  1893,  and  authority  was 
given  for  the  construction  of  the  Plunger,  a  subma- 
rine torpedo-boat,  of  the  Holland  type.  The  falling 
off  in  activity  in  this  year  was  continued  in  1894, 


120  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

whose  record  shows  only  three  torpedo-boats,  the 
Foote,  the  Rodgers,  and  the  Winslow,  adding  some- 
what to  our  very  low  strength  in  this  important  branch 
of  the  service.  In  1895  activity  was  once  more  dis- 
played, two  first-class  battle-ships,  the  Kentucky  and 
the  Kearsarge,  being  authorized,  of  a  greater  tonnage 
than  any  yet  afloat.  To  these  were  added  three 
torpedo-boat  destroyers,  the  first  in  our  navy  of  this 
new  type,  the  Porter,  the  Dupont,  and  the  Rowan. 
The  year  1896  kept  up  this  important  work,  three 
first-class  sea-going  battle-ships,  the  Alabama,  the 
Wisconsin,  and  the  Illinois,  being  authorized  and  put 
under  process  of  construction.  In  the  same  year  con- 
tracts were  signed  for  the  building  of  ten  torpedo- 
boats,  the  Dahlgren,  T.  A.  M.  Craven,  Farragut, 
Davis,  Fox,  Morris,  Talbot,  Gwin,  Mackenzie,  and 
McKee,  to  which  were  added  in  1897  three  others,  the 
Stringham,  Goldsborough,  and  Baily. 

On  April  I,  1898,  three  more  first-class  battle-ships 
were  authorized  by  act  of  Congress,  each  to  be  of 
twelve  thousand  tons  displacement,  and  four  single- 
turreted  monitors,  while  to  the  list  of  smaller  craft  were 
added  sixteen  torpedo-boats  and  as  many  torpedo- 
boat  destroyers.  Orders  for  a  large  number  of  this 
useful  and  quickly  built  class  of  boats  were  issued 
after  the  declaration  of  war  with  Spain,  and  before 
the  end  of  the  year  1898  the  United  States  navy  will 
have  an  abundant  representation  of  this  new  type  of 
naval  craft,  whose  ability  is  least  known  and  its  possi- 
bilities more  dreaded  than  those  of  any  other  class  of 
vessels  afloat  upon  the  seas. 

This  rapid  review  of  the  progress  of  our  new  navy 
shows  a  highly  creditable  record.  Fifteen  years  ago 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  121 

this  country  was  unrepresented  by  a  single  modern 
war-ship  upon  the  high  seas,  and  was  destitute  of  the 
tools,  the  plant,  or  the  knowledge  necessary  to  the 
construction  of  such  ships.  All  the  costly  and  intri- 
cate requisites  for  the  building  of  a  modern  fleet  were 
wanting,  and  we  stood  almost  at  the  foot  of  the  nations 
in  regard  to  our  powers  of  defence  in  ocean  warfare. 
We  are  not  yet  at  the  top,  but  are  moving  rapidly 
towards  a  proud  position  among  the  powers  of  the 
world,  and  possess  to-day  among  our  ships  some  of 
the  most  efficient  yet  produced.  By  the  opening  of 
the  coming  century  this  will  be  largely  added  to,  and 
the  United  States  is  rapidly  on  the  way  towards  taking 
rank  among  the  leading  sea-powers  of  the  world. 


PART   II. 

Our  New  Navy. 
*** 

CHAPTER    I. 

THE   EVOLUTION   OF  THE   IRONCLAD. 

IT  is  to  Fitch  and  Fulton  that  we  owe  the  first  steps 
towards  the  development  of  the  modern  navy.  Before 
their  time,  during  all  the  ages  of  civilization,  the  only 
means  by  which  ships  could  be  moved  were  the  oar 
and  the  sail.  The  employment  of  steam-power  as  an 
agent  of  propulsion  radically  changed  the  situation, 
and  the  war-ships  of  the  present  day  defy  the  power  of 
the  wind.  Two  other  agencies  are  of  vital  importance 
in  the  modern  situation,  iron  armor  and  rifled  guns, 
while  of  recent  years  the  torpedo  has  come  forward 
as  a  most  important  weapon  of  offence.  The  result 
of  all  these  improvements  is  that  the  modern  war- 
vessel  is  a  strikingly  different  and  vastly  more  power- 
ful instrument  of  defence  and  destruction  than  the 
most  efficient  ship  of  ,war  of  a  century  ago. 

Let  us  glance  back  at  the  fleet  which  Arnold 
gathered  on  Lake  Champlain  in  1776  to  oppose  the 
British  invasion.  The  flag-ship  of  that  squadron,  the 
Congress,  was  a  galley  moved  by  oars,  of  the  type  of 
those  used  in  Roman  and  Carthaginian  wars,  its  eight 
guns  throwing  6-pound  balls  to  an  effective  distance 

122 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  123 

of  about  three  hundred  yards.  A  24-pounder  was 
then  a  monster  of  ordnance.  But  the  great  guns  on 
the  ships  of  to-day  can  hurl  noo-pound  projectiles 
over  a  range  of  ten  or  twelve  miles,  with  effective  re- 
sults at  more  than  half  that  distance,  and  could  in  the 
interval  of  a  few  breaths  have  sent  to  the  bottom  the 
proudest  ship  of  Revolutionary  times.  In  no  respect, 
indeed,  has  modern  progress  been  more  strikingly 
shown  than  in  the  development  of  the  navy,  and  the 
great  war-ship  of  half  a  century  ago  is  almost  as  ob- 
solete as  Noah's  ark. 

The  first  step  in  this  new  development  was  taken 
by  Robert  Fulton  in  1813  when  he  projected  a  steam 
ship  of  war  that  should  be  impregnable  to  the  guns  of 
that  day.  This  ship  was  not  launched  until  October 
29,  1814,  and  the  war  ended  before  she  was  ready  for 
service,  the  opportunity  being  missed  of  showing  what 
steam  could  do  against  the  wind.  The  Demologos, 
as  she  was  named,  was  much  the  largest  steamer  then 
afloat,  being  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  in  length  and 
fifty-six  in  breadth,  with  a  tonnage  of  2475.  She  was 
practically  composed  of  two  boats,  joined  above,  but 
with  a  wide  canal  below,  in  which  revolved  a  paddle- 
wheel  of  sixteen  feet  diameter.  Her  armament  was 
intended  to  be  thirty  32-pounders,  in  addition  to  which 
Fulton  proposed  to  supply  her  with  loo-pounder 
columbiads,  two  suspended  from  each  of  the  two  bows, 
with  the  purpose  of  piercing  an  enemy  below  the 
water-line.  A  special  engine  was  provided,  with  the 
novel  purpose  of  hurling  an  immense  column  of  water 
upon  the  decks  and  through  the  ports  of  an  enemy 
— to  drench  out  the  valor  of  the  crew  by  a  douche  of 
cold  water. 


124  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

This  formidable  vessel — for  that  period — found  no 
opportunity  of  showing  her  powers,  and  was  used  as 
a  receiving-ship  at  the  Brooklyn  Navy- Yard  until 
1829,  when  her  magazine  was  accidentally  fired  and 
she  was  blown  into  fragments. 

Another  celebrated  engineer,  Colonel  John  Stevens, 
of  New  York,  is  credited  with  an  important  conception 
in  the  same  year  (1813),  that  of  an  iron-clad  ship  of 
a  type  in  some  respects  like  that  of  the  Monitor.  Its 
details  were  worked  out  for  construction,  but  no 
further  step  was  taken.  The  idea  was  in  advance  of 
the  age.  Yet  it  was  not  allowed  to  die  out,  for  in 
a  few  years  afterwards  we  find  his  son,  Edwin  A. 
Stevens,  inaugurating  a  class  of  experiments  which 
has  become  very  common  of  recent  years,  that  of  the 
testing  of  cannon-ball  against  iron  plate.  His  experi- 
ments were  made  with  a  6-pounder  bronze  cannon. 
These  early  efforts  were  resumed  in  1841,  his  target 
now  being  made  of  thin  plates  built  up  to  the  desired 
thickness.  The  conclusion  arrived  at  was  that  four 
and  one-half  inches  of  iron  sheathing  were  sufficient 
to  resist,  at  thirty  yards,  a  64-pound  shot  from  the 
marine  guns  of  that  period. 

These  experiments,  the  first  definite  steps  towards 
the  evolution  of  the  ironclad,  attracted  the  attention 
of  the  government,  which  instituted  experiments  at 
Sandy  Hook.  The  outcome  was  an  order  to  Robert 
L.  Stevens,  brother  of  Edwin,  for  a  shot-  and  shell- 
proof  war-steamer,  plated  with  4j-inch  iron,  for  which 
Congress  voted  $250,000.  This-  vessel,  begun  in  1844, 
had  a  remarkable  history,  costly  and  aggravating  to 
its  builders.  A  series  of  interruptions  prevented  its 
completion,  the  thickness  of  the  armor  was  added  to, 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  125 

and  in  1856,  when  the  builder  died,  it  remained  un- 
finished on  the  ways.  It  resembled  the  monitor  type 
of  boat  with  the  exception  of  the  turrets,  these  being 
replaced  by  a  sloping  battery.  As  a  ram  it  would  have 
proved  of  great  power.  For  years  it  remained  at 
Hoboken  partly  finished,  the  boilers  and  twin-screw 
engines  being  in  place.  Edwin  A.  Stevens  at  his 
death  left  a  million  dollars  for  the  completion  of  this 
pioneer  ironclad,  and  in  all  the  project  cost  the  family 
nearly  $2,000,000,  yet  the  vessel  was  never  launched, 
and  in  1881  was  torn  to  pieces  and  the  materials  sold. 
It  had  grown  obsolete  long  before  it  was  finished, 
yet  to  it  must  be  given  the  credit  of  inaugurating  the 
era  of  the  iron-clad  navy. 

Another  project  for  an  armored  war-ship  was  de- 
vised by  Clinton  Roosevelt,  of  New  York,  who  sug- 
gested the  building  of  a  vessel  sharp  at  both  ends, 
"plating  them  with  polished  iron  armor,  with  high 
bulwarks,  and  a  sharp  roof  plated  in  like  manner,  with 
the  design  of  glancing  the  balls.  The  means  of  de- 
fence are  a  torpedo,  made  to  lower  on  nearing  an 
enemy,  and  driven  by  a  mortar  into  the  enemy's  side 
under  water,  where,  by  a  fusee,  it  will  explode." 

The  polishing  of  the  armor  of  this  proposed  vessel, 
as  we  now  very  well  know,  would  have  been  a  useless 
waste  of  labor,  but  its  absurdity  could  not  be  proved 
without  trial,  and  in  1862  the  armor  of  the  Civil  War 
ironclads  was  greased,  with  the  notion  that  cannon- 
balls  would  glance  off  from  a  slippery  surface.  It 
was  soon  found  that  cannon-balls  did  not  work  that 
way.  The  torpedo  idea,  suggested  by  Roosevelt,  has 
won  its  way  remarkably  since  that  date. 

The  propelling  apparatus  of  early  steam-vessels,  the 


126  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

paddle-wheel,  was  one  that  would  have  proved  a  weak 
feature  in  ships  of  war.  Fulton  recognized  this  at  the 
outset,  and  built  his  steam  war-ship  with  a  double  keel, 
the  wheel  being  hidden  in  the  space  between. 

In  1837  a  new  war-steamer  was  built  to  replace  the 
old  Demologos,  and  named  the  Fulton  2d.  This 
vessel,  one  hundred  and  eighty  feet  long  by  thirty-five 
wide,  had  horizontal  engines  lying  on  her  upper  deck, 
and  huge  exposed  paddle-wheels,  twenty-two  feet  in 
diameter,  their  upper  section  standing  high  in  air. 
Her  armament  was  powerful  for  that  day,  but  the 
exposure  of  her  engines  and  wheel  must  have  proved 
fatal  to  her  effectiveness  as  a  vessel  of  war. 

Some  device  different  from  the  paddle-wheel  was 
evidently  needed  to  render  steam  available  for  naval 
purposes,  and  it  came  in  1836,  when  the  screw-pro- 
pellor  of  John  Ericsson  was  first  invented.  The 
utility  of  this  important  device  was  not  acknowledged 
in  England,  where  the  patent  had  been  taken  out,  and 
in  1839  Ericsson  came  to  the  United  States,  under 
invitation  from  Robert  F.  Stockton,  who  had  made  a 
trip  on  his  model  boat  in  England  and  was  quick  to 
recognize  its  value.  In  the  same  year  Captain  Matthew 
C.  Perry  ventured  a  prediction,  which  was  laughed 
at  by  naval  officers,  that  the  sail  was  destined  to  be- 
come extinct  on  vessels  of  war.  Their  laughter  was 
premature.  Perry's  prediction  was  realized  much 
sooner  than  he  had  dreamed  of.  Aided  by  Stockton, 
Ericsson  planned  a  man-of-war  that  should  be  driven 
by  machinery  placed  below  the  danger-line  and  moved 
by  a  screw  submerged  at  her  stern.  An  appropriation 
was  readily  obtained  from  Congress  for  this  vessel, 
and  it  was  launched  in  1843.  The  Princeton,  as  the 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  127 

new  ship  of  war  was  named,  was  one  hundred  and 
sixty-four  feet  long  by  thirty  wide  and  twenty-one 
deep,  and  with  two  hundred  tons  of  coal  on  board 
had  a  draught  of  nearly  twenty  feet.  She  was  the 
first  war-ship  adapted  to  burn  anthracite  coal,  and 
had  various  other  features  of  superiority  to  her  pre- 
decessors. Her  armament  included  two  long  wrought- 
iron  guns  of  about  twelve  inches  bore,  throwing  balls 
of  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  pounds  weight,  and 
capable,  at  a  range  of  five  hundred  and  sixty  yards,  of 
piercing  fifty-seven  inches  of  solid  oak.  Unfortu- 
nately, during  her  trial  trip  at  Washington  in  1844, 
one  of  these  great  guns  burst,  killing  and  wounding 
a  number  of  passengers,  among  whom  were  the  Secre- 
taries of  State  and  of  the  Navy. 

This  accident,  however,  only  proved  that  forged 
guns  of  that  size  could  not  be  safely  made  with  the 
knowledge  of  the  art  then  possessed,  and  did  not 
affect  the  evident  superiority  of  the  screw  as  a  pro- 
pelling agent.  The  value  of  this  device  had  been 
proved,  and  six  more  screw  frigates — the  Niagara,  the 
Roanoke,  the  Colorado,  the  Merrimac,  the  Minne- 
sota, and  the  Wabash — were  built.  To  these  were 
added  six  first-class,  eight  second-class,  and  five  third- 
class  screw  sloops,  giving  the  United  States,  at  the 
opening  of  the  Civil  War,  an  excellent  standing  among 
the  naval  powers  of  that  day. 

As  for  the  character  of  the  guns  used  in  this  fleet, 
a  description  must  be  reserved  for  a  later  chapter.  It 
will  suffice  here  to  say  that  the  great  Dahlgren  smooth- 
bore cannon  had  become  the  favorite  in  the  navy  be- 
fore the  Civil  War,  guns  of  this  make  being  used  on 
the  best  ships.  Rifled  cannon  had,  however,  been  in- 


128  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

troduced,  made  of  cast  iron  with  a  wrought-iron  jacket 
shrunk  on  the  breech,  and  varying  from  30-  to  100- 
pounders.  Rifles  of  larger  size  were  soon  produced. 
The  frigate  Minnesota  entered  the  Civil  War  with  an 
armament  of  one  ii-inch  and  forty-two  9-inch  Dahl- 
grens,  one  I5o-pounder  and  four  loo-pounder  rifles, 
and  was  capable  of  throwing  eighteen  hundred  and 
sixty-one  pounds  of  metal  at  a  broadside.  The  Par- 
rott  rifle,  used  in  the  Union  navy,  is  said  to  have  been 
surpassed  in  endurance  by  one  known  as  the  Brooke, 
produced  by  Commander  John  M.  Brooke,  of  the 
Confederate  navy,  this  being  strengthened  by  two 
series  of  wrought-iron  bands  shrunk  on  over  the  cast- 
iron  breech. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  the  United  States  navy 
at  the  opening  of  the  Civil  War.  Meanwhile,  the  idea 
of  the  ironclad  had  gone  abroad,  and  other  nations 
were  instigated  to  work  in  the  same  direction.  During 
the  Crimean  War  England  and  France  perceived  the 
unwisdom  of  exposing  wooden  vessels  to  the  fire  of 
Russian  forts  armed  with  the  new  ordnance,  and  in 
1854,  ten  years  after  the  beginning  of  the  Stevens 
battery,  Louis  Napoleon  suggested  the  building  of 
armored  naval  batteries  for  use  in  the  Black  Sea.  Five 
such  batteries  were  constructed  in  France,  plated  with 
4^-inch  iron.  England  built  a  number  of  similar  ones, 
with  4-inch  armor.  Of  these,  only  three  of  the  French 
were  completed  in  time  to  take  part  in  the  war,  they 
being  used  in  the  bombardment  of  the  strong  Russian 
fort  at  Kinburn  in  the  Crimea.  At  a  distance  of  one 
thousand  yards  these  batteries  resisted  32-pounder 
shots  propelled  by  lo-pound  charges  of  powder.  In 
less  than  half  an  hour  the  forts  were  silenced,  and  there 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  129 

was  no  further  need  for  these  floating  batteries  during 
the  war.  They  were  flat-bottomed,  keelless  boats,  one 
hundred  and  seventy-two  feet  long  by  forty-three  feet 
beam,  with  engines  of  two  hundred  horse-power,  their 
iron  plating  being  backed  by  twenty  inches  of  solid 
timber.  They  were  heavily  armed,  carrying  batteries 
of  sixteen  68-pounders,  but  were  crude  and  unman- 
ageable affairs. 

This  experiment  was  followed  in  France  by  the  con- 
struction of  the  first  iron-clad  ship  ever  actually  com- 
pleted, the  celebrated  La  Gloire.  This  ship,  based 
on  an  old  frigate,  the  Napoleon,  was  two  hundred  and 
fifty  feet  long  and  fifty-five  feet  beam,  her  iron  armor 
extending  her  whole  length  and  reaching  to  six  feet 
below  the  water-line.  She  was  built  with  a  ram  bow, 
her  speed  being  about  13.5  knots.  She  was  completed 
in  1859,  and  was  followed  by  two  other  wooden  vessels 
of  similar  design,  and  by  the  iron  ship  Couronne. 
These  ships  were  armored  with  5-inch  plates  resting 
on  twenty-six  inches  of  wood  backing,  and  carried  a 
battery  of  thirty-six  5-ton  guns.  The  completion  of 
the  La  Gloire  aroused  England  to  the  importance  of 
iron-clad  ships,  and  the  Warrior,  her  first  armored 
vessel,  was  launched  in  January,  1861.  This  ship  was 
built  of  iron  and  covered  for  two-thirds  of  its  length 
with  4^-inch  iron  plates,  the  two  ends  being  left  un- 
armored. 

The  Warrior  was  nearly  double  the  size  and  tonnage 
of  La  Gloire,  and,  unlike  the  latter,  is  still  fit  for  ser- 
vice, though  long  since  obsolete  as  a  fighting  ship. 
She  has  a  speed  of  nearly  fifteen  knots.  Others 
quickly  followed  in  which  the  plating  covered  the 
whole  round  of  the  hull,  while  several  of  the  new  line 


130  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

of  battle-ships  were  cut  down,  plated  with  iron  four 
and  one-half  to  six  inches  thick,  and  provided  with 
ram  bows.  Such  was  the  activity  in  the  building  of 
armored  vessels  that  at  the  end  of  the  Civil  War  in 
America  the  British  navy  possessed  thirty  ironclads 
of  various  types,  and  was  once  more  superior  upon 
the  sea.  On  the  breaking  out  of  the  Civil  War,  how- 
ever, no  such  vessel,  with  the  exception  of  the  French 
floating  batteries,  had  been  tried  in  actual  warfare, 
and  the  nations  of  Europe  looked  on  with  eager  in- 
terest as  this  new  type  of  fighting  craft  was  put  to 
trial.  The  conflict  between  the  Monitor  and  the  Mer- 
rimac  in  Hampton  Roads  was  a  revolutionary  event 
in  the  naval  history  of  the  world.  The  results  of  the 
first  shots  in  that  momentous  battle  made  obsolete  all 
the  navies  of  Europe  except  the  few  ironclads  then 
possessed  by  France  and  England,  and  rendered  neces- 
sary a  multitude  of  costly  experiments  before  the  new 
principles  of  marine  engineering  could  be  evolved. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  say  anything  here  concerning 
the  ironclads  of  the  Civil  War.  They  have  been  suffi- 
ciently described  in  a  preceding  chapter.  In  their 
building  the  Confederates  showed  commendable 
promptness  and  much  enterprise,  though  quick  mis- 
fortune overtook  every  one  of  their  ships.  The  un- 
armored  vessel  was  still  an  element  in  the  situation, 
Farragut  having  no  others  at  New  Orleans.  Yet  these 
were  ill  fitted  to  withstand  the  powerful  guns  then 
coming  into  use,  and  the  activity  in  building  ironclads 
showed  clearly  the  feeling  that  the  era  of  the  wooden 
ship  of  war  was  at  an  end. 

The  close  of  the  Civil  War  was  followed  by  a  period 
of  indifference  to  naval  requirements  in  the  United 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  131 

States,  so  long  continued  that  this  country  was  left  in 
a  worse  position  for  ocean  service  than  it  had  ever  oc- 
cupied. In  the  case  of  former  wars,  with  the  exception, 
already  noted,  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  the  ships 
that  remained  were  still  of  use,  and  formed  the  nucleus 
for  the  growth  of  a  new  navy.  But  after  the  Civil 
War  a  different  state  of  affairs  prevailed.  The  wooden 
vessels  which  emerged  from  that  conflict  were  useless 
in  the  new  conditions  of  ocean  warfare,  while  the  only 
sea-going  ironclad,  the  New  Ironsides,  one  of  the 
most  powerful  war-vessels  then  in  existence,  was 
quickly  destroyed  by  fire.  The  building  of  monitors 
had  been  active,  and  thirteen  of  these  remained  and 
still  exist,  useful  for  harbor  defence,  but  unsuited  for 
use  on  the  open  sea.  It  was  in  this  condition  that 
the  United  States  entered  the  new  era  of  ocean  war- 
fare, and  in  this  condition  it  continued  for  twenty 
years,  resting  in  sluggish  inaction  while  armored  war- 
fleets  were  being  actively  built  by  the  nations  of  Eu- 
rope, and  experiments  in  the  resistance  of  iron  and 
steel  plate  were  widely  made.  In  considering,  there- 
fore, the  evolution  of  the  ironclad,  we  are  obliged  to 
go  abroad,  nothing  having  been  done  at  home  during 
the  period  in  question. 

It  is  claimed  in  England  that  the  idea  of  the  turret 
ship  was  not  original  with  Ericsson.  Captain  Cowper 
Coles,  of  the  British  navy,  proposed  during  the 
Crimean  War  a  raft  bearing  a  great  gun,  protected 
by  a  hemispherical  iron  shield.  Ericsson,  however, 
had  submitted  his  conception  to  the  Emperor  Na- 
poleon III.  as  early  as  1854.  By  1860  Captain  Coles 
had  advanced  to  the  conception  of  a  vessel  like  the 
Monitor,  bearing  a  number  of  revolving  cupolas  or 


132  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

turrets,  each  to  contain  two  guns.  They  were  to  re- 
volve on  turn-tables.  This  idea  is  now  in  general 
use,  all  heavy  guns  either  revolving  independently  on 
turn-tables,  or  turning  in  common  with  the  turrets 
in  which  they  are  enclosed.  Captain  Coles,  how- 
ever, found  the  British  admiralty  deaf  to  his  pro- 
posal; the  broadside  ship  of  the  old  navy  continued 
the  favorite  form,  and  a  number  of  ironclads  were 
built  of  this  old  type. 

To  the  Warrior  were  added  several  other  vessels  of 
the  same  character  with  unprotected  ends,  the  Achilles 
being  the  first  in  which  the  armor  was  carried  the 
whole  length  of  the  hull.  The  same  was  the  case  with 
the  Minotaur,  Northumberland,  and  Agincourt,  in 
which  the  thickness  of  iron  was  increased  to  five  and 
one-half  inches  in  the  central  region,  but  the  1 8-inch 
wood  backing  of  the  Warrior  was  cut  down  to  nine 
inches.  Sail-power  was  still  considered  necessary,  and 
these  vessels  had  five  masts.  This  gave  them  a  curious 
appearance,  and  it  is  said  that  a  merchant  vessel  sailed 
close  up  to  the  Minotaur  during  the  night,  its  captain 
thinking,  from  the  number  of  masts,  that  two  vessels 
lay  before  him  between  which  he  might  pass.  To  the 
newly  built  ships  were  added  others  cut  down  and 
converted  from  frigates  of  the  old  navy. 

As  guns  increased  in  penetrating  power,  armor  grew 
in  thickness,  the  Bellerophon,  begun  in  1863,  having 
an  armor  belt  of  nine  inches.  The  Alexandra,  which 
was  launched  in  1875,  and  was  the  last  representative 
of  the  broadside  system,  carried  armor  twelve  inches 
thick  at  the  water-line  opposite  the  machinery,  taper- 
ing to  six  inches  at  the  bow  and  stern.  But  the  su- 
preme importance  of  protecting  the  engines  and  other 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  133 

essential  parts  of  the  ship  was  now  fully  recognized, 
and  in  the  Alexandra  armored  bulkheads  were  carried 
from  the  ends  of  the  heavy  plating  across  the  ship, 
completely  enclosing  its  vital  parts.  The  increasing 
thickness  of  armor  was  rendered  necessary  by  the 
growing  power  of  guns.  The  Warrior  carried  68- 
pounders,  weighing  ninety-five  hundredweight.  In 
the  Alexandra  the  main  battery  was  composed  of  18- 
ton  guns,  but  above  these  were  placed  two  25-ton 
guns,  of  12-inch  diameter  of  bore.  The  twin  screw 
had  also  been  adopted,  giving  the  Alexandra  a  speed 
of  fifteen  knots.  This  ship,  the  largest  and  latest  of 
the  broadside  type,  took  part  in  the  bombardment  of 
the  forts  at  Alexandria  in  1882,  where  she  was  struck 
some  thirty  times,  but  received  little  injury. 

Not  only  Great  Britain,  but  European  nations  in 
general,  long  persisted  in  building  ships  of  this  char- 
acter, innate  conservatism  keeping  them  to  the  old 
type,  as  it  has  similarly  retained  the  old  stage-coach 
type  in  the  railway  carriage.  The  advantages  of  the 
turret  system,  as  indicated  in  the  battle  between  the 
turreted  Monitor  and  the  broadside  Merrimac,  were 
slow  in  gaining  recognition,  though  it  is  now  uni- 
versally accepted.  It  was  considered  that  vessels  of 
this  type  were  unfit  for  distant  service.  They  might, 
however,  be  of  use  in  coast  defence,  as  a  species  of 
floating  fort,  and  a  trial  of  two  small  monitors  which 
were  building  in  English  ship-yards  for  the  Confed- 
erate service,  and  were  seized  and  afterwards  pur- 
chased by  the  British  government,  induced  a  trial  of 
this  idea  on  a  larger  scale,  and  the  construction  of  two 
turret  ships  was  ordered.  The  Royal  Sovereign,  an 
old  three  decker,  was  cut  down,  plated  with  5j-incb 


134  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

iron,  and  provided  with  four  turrets,  of  which  the  fore- 
most held  two  guns,  the  others  one  each.  The  turrets, 
instead  of  revolving  on  a  central  spindle,  like  that  of 
the  Monitor,  turned  on  rollers  fixed  on  their  lower 
edges.  The  turn-table  system  gave  them  greater 
rigidity  of  resistance  when  struck  by  shot,  and  is  now 
everywhere  adopted.  This  vessel  was  completed  in 
1864,  and  a  similar  one,  the  Prince  Albert,  was  soon 
after  launched. 

These  experiments  were  not  satisfactory  to  Captain 
Coles.  He  insisted  that  a  sea-going  ship  could  be 
constructed  on  his  principle,  and  the  admiralty  at 
length  consented  to  build  a  turret  ship  with  masts, — 
the  Monarch.  As  this  vessel  did  not  embody  the 
views  of  Captain  Coles,  he  continued  to  advocate  his 
plans,  in  which  he  was  strongly  supported  by  the  press, 
and  the  admiralty  finally  permitted  him  to  build  a 
vessel  in  accordance  with  his  conception  of  what  a 
war-vessel  should  be.  This  craft,  the  Captain,  had 
two  turrets  only,  the  growing  weight  of  guns  neces- 
sarily limiting  the  number  of  turrets.  It  was  pro- 
vided with  three  masts  and  had  full  sail-power.  Un- 
fortunately for  Captain  Coles  and  his  plans,  the  low 
freeboard  and  great  spread  of  sail  of  the  Captain 
proved  fatal  to  her,  she  being  capsized  in  a  squall  off 
Cape  Finisterre  on  September  6,  1870,  carrying  down 
nearly  all  hands.  Among  these  was  Captain  Coles 
himself,  who  had  taken  passage  on  the  ship  for  the 
purpose  of  observing  its  behavior. 

This  misfortune  ended  the  career  of  masted  turret 
ships.  The  Monarch  was  completed,  but  no  other 
vessel  of  this  type  has  been  built.  The  two  turrets 
of  the  Monarch  were  protected  by  lo-inch  armor,  while 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  135 

their  lower  portions  were  covered  by  the  side  armor 
of  the  ship.  Each  carried  two  25-ton  guns,  the  largest 
ordnance  then  in  use.  As  the  masts  obstructed  direct 
fire  ahead  and  astern,  smaller  guns  were  placed  at 
the  ends  of  the  vessel. 

Though  the  ships  named  had  shown  disadvantages, 
owing  to  faults  of  construction,  the  superior  merit  of 
the  turret  system  was  gradually  making  itself  felt. 
The  mast  must  evidently  give  way  if  the  turret  was 
to  be  employed,  but  the  latter  presented  advantages 
which  could  not  but  be  acknowledged.  The  position 
of  the  turrets  in  the  centre  of  the  ship  rendered  easy 
an  even  distribution  of  weight  of  guns  and  armor,  it 
being  possible  to  mount  much  heavier  guns  in  this 
situation  than  could  be  done  in  broadsides.  And  the 
turrets  offered  a  far  superior  protection  to  the  guns  and 
the  crew,  both  from  the  heavier  armor  they  could 
carry,  and  the  probability  that  many  of  the  projectiles 
would  glance  from  their  rounded  surfaces  instead  of 
penetrating.  The  low  freeboard  of  a  turret  ship  was 
also  advantageous,  as  compared  with  the  high  free- 
board of  the  broadside  ship,  in  presenting  a  much 
smaller  mark  to  an  enemy.  The  result  of  these  advan- 
tages has  been  that  the  turret  principle  has  everywhere 
carried  the  day,  and  broadside  ships  of  the  old  type 
are  no  longer  built,  though  the  two  principles  are 
often  combined. 

In  1869  three  low  freeboard,  mastless  turret  ships 
were  laid  down  in  the  British  yards,  the  Devastation, 
the  Thunderer,  and  the  Dreadnought.  These  ships, 
of  which  the  first  named  was  completed  in  1873,  still 
hold  a  high  place  in  the  British  navy.  They  have  a 
belt  of  1 4 -inch  armor  at  the  water-line,  above  which 


136  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

an  armored  breastwork  of  1 2-inch  iron  reaches  to 
the  base  of  the  turrets.  The  fore  and  aft  freeboard 
is  very  low,  the  deck  being  but  about  four  feet  out 
of  the  water,  so  that  water-tight  hatches  are  necessary. 
A  hurricane  deck  rises  between  and  somewhat  above 
the  turrets  and  furnishes  protection  for  many  neces- 
sary appendages  of  the  ship.  These  vessels,  with  all 
ships  of  the  same  type,  are  ventilated  by  means  of 
fans  worked  by  steam-power,  on  the  principle  adopted 
in  the  original  Monitor. 

The  succeeding  stage  of  development  in  the  ar- 
mored ship  was  the  evolution  of  what  is  known  as  the 
citadel  ship,  in  which  protection  of  the  fore  and  aft 
region  is,  in  a  measure,  neglected  and  special  attention 
given  to  the  defence  of  the  central  vital  section  of  the 
ship.  The  first  stage  in  this  lay  in  the  athwartship 
armored  bulkheads  of  the  Alexandra  and  the  Dread- 
nought. In  the  Inflexible,  the  first  ship  built  in  full  con- 
formity with  the  citadel  type,  the  armor  at  the  water- 
line  was  given  the  enormous  thickness  of  twenty-four 
inches,  in  two  thicknesses  of  twelve  inches  each,  with 
wood  backing  between,  while  the  turrets  were  pro- 
tected with  1 6-inch  plate.  The  side  plates,  however, 
were  of  wrought  iron,  while  the  turrets  were  covered 
with  what  is  known  as  compound  plate,  iron  faced  with 
steel,  which  gave  them  a  superior  power  of  resistance. 
The  citadel  occupied  but  about  one-third  the  full 
length  of  the  ship,  covering  one  hundred  and  ten  feet 
out  of  the  total  three  hundred  and  twenty  feet,  a  breast- 
work extending  from  the  ends  of  the  armor  across 
the  seventy-four  feet  width  of  the  ship.  Its  width  was 
sixteen  feet,  it  extending  six  feet  five  inches  below 
and  nine  feet  seven  inches  above  the  water-line.  Ships 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  137 

of  this  type,  therefore,  consist  of  a  central,  heavily 
armored  cage  or  citadel,  protecting  all  the  machinery 
of  the  ship.  Fore  and  aft  from  the  base  of  the  citadel 
extends  a  water-tight,  turtle-backed  deck,  composed 
of  steel  two  and  one-half  to  three  inches  thick.  Above 
this  is  built  up  a  wooden  portion,  in  which  are  the 
quarters  of  the  men  and  officers.  These  unarmored 
ends  can  be  destroyed  without  affecting  the  floating 
power  of  the  ship  or  injuring  its  motive  and  fighting 
apparatus.  Even  the  piercing  of  the  armor  below  the 
water-line  does  not  necessitate  sinking,  for  the  war- 
ship of  the  present  day  is  made  up  of  several  hundred 
water-tight  compartments,  so  that  an  aperture  would 
admit  the  water  to  but  a  small  portion  of  her  interior. 
In  considering  the  evolution  of  the  iron-clad  ship 
of  war,  we  have  necessarily  been  taken  abroad,  the 
United  States  failing  to  aid  in  this  evolution  during 
the  twenty  years  that  succeeded  the  Civil  War.  But 
the  work  of  evolution  was  not  confined  to  Great 
Britain,  the  other  nations  of  Europe  taking  active  part 
in  it.  The  close  of  the  Civil  War,  indeed,  was  quickly 
followed  by  a  battle  of  ironclads  in  the  waters  of  the 
Mediterranean.  This  was  in  1866,  during  the  war  of 
Prussia  and  Italy  with  Austria.  At  that  date  Italy 
possessed  twelve  iron-clad  ships,  varying  in  size  from 
5800  to  2000  tons,  and  protected  with  iron  varying 
from  four  to  five  and  one-half  inches  in  thickness. 
Austria  had  only  seven  vessels  of  this  kind,  ranging 
from  5200  to  3000  tons,  and  with  from  4J-  to  5-inch 
armor.  It  was  also  greatly  inferior  in  guns.  These 
two  fleets,  in  company  with  a  number  of  wooden  ves- 
sels, met  on  the  2oth  of  July,  the  Italian  fleet  the  worse 
for  a  recent  engagement  with  some  land  batteries,  and 


138  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

a  hot  engagement  ensued.  The  battle  continued  for 
several  hours,  and  ended  in  victory  for  the  Austrians, 
the  Italians  being  compelled  to  withdraw,  with  the 
loss  of  two  of  their  ships.  The  principal  loss  of  the 
Austrians  was  on  the  side  of  the  wooden  vessels  that 
took  part  in  the  fight.  It  is  of  interest  as  the  first 
open-sea  battle  between  iron-clad  fleets,  but  demon- 
strated nothing  that  had  not  been  already  shown  in 
the  American  Civil  War. 

France  had  actively  vied  with  England  in  building 
a  new  navy,  and  had  adopted  a  somewhat  different 
method  of  mounting  heavy  guns.  The  turret  was 
employed,  but  there  were  added  to  it  a  few  guns  placed 
en  barbette  on  each  side.  Eventually,  when  the  in- 
creased weight  of  guns  interfered  with  this  double 
system,  the  French  rejected  the  turret  except  for  coast- 
defence  vessels,  and  mounted  all  their  heavy  guns  en 
barbette.  The  barbette  consists  of  a  thick  inclined  wall 
of  armor,  usually  pear-shaped,  built  into  the  ship,  and 
enclosing  a  turn-table  that  carries  the  gun,  which 
stands  on  a  platform  (the  original  significance  of  the 
word  barbette),  high  enough  to  enable  the  gun  to  be 
fired  over  the  top  of  the  wall  or  parapet.  Thus  the 
amount  of  protection  is  reduced,  the  full  length  of  the 
gun  being  exposed  to  hostile  fire,  and  only  the  ap- 
paratus for  manipulating  it  protected.  But  while  the 
turret  gives  greater  protection  to  the  gun,  this  advan- 
tage is  reduced  in  the  very  long  guns  now  used,  since 
the  greater  part  of  their  length  must  be  exposed.  In 
the  Temeraire,  a  British  ship  to  which  the  barbette 
principle  was  applied,  disappearing  guns  were  em- 
ployed. But  as  this  required  a  greater  weight  and 
larger  enclosure,  the  disadvantage  was  held  to  be 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 


139 


greater  than  the  gain,  and  the  principle  has  not  been 
applied  to  later  ships,  the  use  of  the  disappearing  gun 
being  since  restricted  to  land  forts.  The  final  out- 
come of  the  movement  in  this  direction,  both  in  the 
British  and  French  navies,  is  the  existence  of  a  series 
of  vessels  in  which  the  barbette  and  broadside  systems 
are  combined,  they  being  constructed  with  a  pear- 
shaped  barbette  at  each  end  for  heavy  guns,  and  be- 
tween these  a  broadside  battery  of  6-inch  guns.  The 
British  ships  of  this  type,  known  as  the  "Admiral" 
class  (being  named  after  celebrated  admirals),  have 
eighteen  inches  of  compound  armor  (iron  faced  with 
steel)  at  the  water-line,  and  are  built  on  the  citadel 
plan. 

There  is  another  matter  of  importance  that  needs 
to  be  considered  in  this  connection.  Iron  ships  are 
more  liable  to  injury  than  wooden  ones  in  the  event  of 
striking  a  rock  or  the  ground.  In  the  wooden  vessel 
the  tendency  to  swell  when  water-soaked  aids  to  close 
the  fracture,  an  advantage  not  possessed  by  iron.  To 
meet  this  danger,  the  double  bottom  was  devised,  an 
inner  iron  skin  being  placed  a  short  distance  from  the 
outer  bottom.  This  method  has  been  developed  until 
the  inner  skin  has  become  a  second  hull  under  water, 
the  space  between  the  two  hulls  in  some  instances 
being  as  much  as  three  and  one-half  feet  in  width. 
This  is  traversed  by  the  ribs  of  the  ship  and  by  longi- 
tudinal divisions,  so  that  it  is  partitioned  off  into  a 
large  number  of  water-tight  cells.  The  piercing  of 
the  outer  hull  at  any  point  could  let  no  dangerous 
amount  of  water  into  the  ship.  In  the  event  of  both 
hulls  being  broken  through,  as  by  the  blow  of  a  ram 
or  the  explosion  of  a  torpedo,  the  ship  has  still  an 


140  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

important  safety  provision  in  the  possession  of  a 
large  number  of  water-tight  compartments.  The 
number  of  these  has  enormously  increased  since  the 
days  of  the  New  Ironsides,  which  possessed  but  three. 
They  have  reached  as  many  as  two  hundred  and 
seventy-two  in  the  case  of  the  battle-ship  Indiana, 
and  still  more  in  some  of  the  cruisers,  the  Cincinnati, 
for  instance,  having  four  hundred  and  eighty-seven 
such  compartments, — water-proof  steel  boxes  or 
rooms  into  which  the  vessel  is  divided  up,  and  from 
which  the  water  may  be  separately  pumped. 

While  speaking  of  this,  it  is  well  to  call  attention 
to  another  water-proof  device  adopted  in  modern  war- 
ships, for  the  purpose  of  preventing  the  entrance  of 
water  through  shot-holes.  This  is  accomplished  by 
placing  in  the  thickness  of  the  side  a  layer  of  material 
which  will  expand  when  wet,  swelling  to  fill  the  cavity 
made.  A  sort  of  coffer-dam  is  constructed  for  some 
distance  above  and  below  the  water-line,  and  filled 
with  this  material.  The  British  ship  Inflexible,  one 
of  the  first  to  be  protected  in  this  manner,  possesses 
a  layer  made  of  a  mixture  of  cork  and  oakum,  and 
weighing  one  hundred  and  forty-eight  tons.  At  a 
later  date  a  preparation  made  from  the  husks  of  cocoa- 
nuts  was  employed,  under  the  name  of  cellulose.  This 
is  a  brown,  fibrous  substance,  very  light,  and  yielding 
largely  to  compression.  It  was  first  used  in  France, 
and  was  adopted  in  the  United  States  navy  in  1892. 
In  1895  a  new  cellulose  was  brought  to  the  notice 
of  the  Navy  Department,  made  of  the  pith  of  corn- 
stalks, which  is  granulated  by  machinery.  This  is 
cheap,  light,  incombustible,  and  more  expansible  when 
wet  than  the  cocoanut  product,  swelling  to  fill  con- 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  141 

siderable  rents.  The  one  hundred  and  forty-eight 
tons  of  the  Inflexible  lining  could  be  replaced  by 
twenty-five  tons  of  this  material.  It  has  been  selected 
for  the  new  battle-ships  now  building  for  the  United 
States  navy. 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE   MODERN   WAR-SHIP. 

IT  is  proposed  in  the  present  chapter  to  deal  in  gen- 
eral terms  with  the  subject  of  the  war-ship  as  now 
understood,  indicating  its  several  varieties,  and  ex- 
plaining the  general  meaning  of  terms.  In  old  naval 
warfare  a  wide  variety  of  names  for  ships  came  into 
vogue,  the  leading  ones  being  those  of  "  line-of-battle 
ship,"  "  frigate,"  "  corvette,"  and  "  sloop-of-war."  Of 
these,  the  ship  of  the  line,  as  it  was  otherwise  entitled, 
was  a  powerful  two-  or  three-decked  vessel,  carrying 
large  and  numerous  guns,  and  forming  the  strong 
fighting  nucleus  of  a  warlike  squadron.  The  frigate 
was  a  smaller  ship  with  a  single  gun-deck,  on  which 
were  ranged  from  twenty  to  fifty  guns,  but  swifter  than 
her  great  consort,  and  serving  as  an  alert  messenger 
or  useful  aid  in  the  various  exigencies  of  ocean  war- 
fare. These  classes  of  ships  played  the  relative  parts 
taken  by  the  battle-ship  and  the  cruiser  in  modern 
war-fleets.  The  sloop  of  war  was  not  a  sloop  in  the 
sense  of  being  a  one-masted  vessel,  but  might  be  either 
ship-  or  schooner-rigged,  its  armament  varying  from 
eighteen  to  thirty-two  guns.  Below  it,  as  a  war-vessel, 
ranged  the  brig,  and  above  it  the  corvette,  a  three- 


142  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

masted,  square-rigged  vessel,  with  one  tier  of  guns, 
rarely  more  than  twenty-six  in  number. 

These  various  terms,  and  the  others  once  in  vogue, 
have,  with  the  exception  of  gunboat,  vanished  from 
use  within  the  past  half-century,  and  are  now  replaced 
by  a  series  of  terms  more  in  consonance  with  the  con- 
ditions of  modern  warfare,  some  of  them  indicating 
classes  of  ships  or  smaller  vessels  new  alike  in  naval 
nomenclature  and  naval  usage. 

One  of  the  most  marked  changes  in  the  aspect  of 
ships  is  the  disappearance  of  the  sail  as  an  agent  to 
propel  the  vessel  through  the  waves.  Steam  has  suc- 
ceeded the  wind  as  the  moving  agent  in  navigation, 
and  instead  of  adding  sail  after  sail,  as  in  the  past,  until 
the  vessel  was  almost  lost  to  view  beneath  her  vast 
spread  of  canvas,  modern  ship-builders  add  horse- 
power after  horse-power,  with  the  effect  of  driving 
their  vessels  through  the  water  at  a  speed  undreamed 
of  in  the  past  and  enabling  the  ship-masters  of  to-day 
to  laugh  at  storm  and  calm  and  drive  onward  resist- 
lessly  in  the  teeth  of  a  howling  gale.  The  advantage 
in  speed  has  been  gained  at  a  serious  loss  in  pictur- 
esque effect.  A  full-rigged  ship  of  the  past,  gliding 
gracefully  onward  with  swelling  sails  and  bowing 
masts,  was  a  thing  of  beauty,  a  poem  in  motion,  a 
white-winged  bird  of  the  waters  whose  floating  grace 
inspired  admiration  in  all  beholders,  until  words  be- 
came weak  to  express  man's  delight  in  the  charm  of 
the  floating  ocean  swan. 

From  the  modern  war-ship  all  poetry  has  been 
stripped  away.  It  is  mighty,  but  not  beautiful.  The 
feathery  grace  of  the  ship  under  sail  has  been  replaced 
by  the  grim  lines  of  strength  and  massiveness.  It  is 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  143 

force  in  motion  that  we  see  in  the  great  modern  steam- 
vessel,  not  floating  beauty,  and  the  poems  now  written 
in  praise  of  the  battle-ship  speak  of  it  as  a  grim  instru- 
ment of  destruction  instead  of  a  floating  palace  of 
beauty  whose  mission  was  masked  by  its  grace. 

The  sail  was  yielded  reluctantly.  It  was  still  of  some 
use  as  a  coal-saver,  and  continued  to  be  spread  to  the 
winds,  even  while  the  strong  engine  was  pulsing  and 
revolving  below.  But  as  the  demand  for  speed  grew 
more  vital  coal  won  the  battle  over  the  wind  and  the 
sail  gradually  passed  away.  The  mast  has  remained, 
but  as  a  low  iron  column,  of  use  only  as  a  look-out 
point  and  to  give  a  commanding  height  to  some  of  the 
smaller  guns  of  a  modern  armament.  It  has  become 
the  "military  mast,"  and  its  old  significance  is  at  an 
end.  As  for  the  long  rows  of  port-holes  in  an  old-time 
battle-ship,  each  with  its  black,  threatening  muzzle, 
they  have  gone  to  return  no  more.  The  system  of  old 
was  to  plant  as  many  guns  in  a  ship  as  she  could 
stagger  under,  with  the  hope  of  overwhelming  an  an- 
tagonist with  the  hail  of  iron  balls  hurled  from  her 
whole  broadside  in  a  devastating  mass.  A  few  great 
guns  borne  aloft  in  a  steel-clad  turret  have  replaced 
the  grinning  rows  of  the  great  two-  or  three-decker 
of  the  past,  while  a  number  of  smaller  guns,  placed 
here  and  there,  rain  forth  their  instruments  of  death 
with  such  force  and  fury  that  the  greatest  ship  of  the 
line  of  Nelson's  fleet,  if  placed  within  their  range, 
would  be  rent  into  splinters  almost  before  it  could 
bring  its  broadside  to  bear. 

The  "  wooden  walls"  of  the  past  are  no  more.  The 
iron  citadel  now  holds  the  lordship  of  the  seas.  Steel 
has  taken  the  place  of  wood,  the  rifled  gun  has  sent 


144  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

to  the  waste-heap  the  old-time  smooth-bore,  the 
breech-loader  has  relegated  the  muzzle-loader  to  an- 
tiquity, the  quick-firing  gun  of  the  present  has  made 
obsolete  the  proudest  cannon  of  the  past,  and  modern 
naval  warfare  has  made  so  vast  a  change  that  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  realize  that  the  knell  of  the  old  system  was 
first  rung  by  the  guns  of  the  Monitor  and  the  Mer- 
rimac,  little  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago. 

Fortunately  for  our  sense  of  beauty,  the  high  mast 
and  swelling  sail  have  not  entirely  vanished  from  view. 
War  has  no  use  for  them,  but  peace  finds  them  useful 
still.  The  great  "  liners"  of  the  passenger  service  have 
no  time  for  the  vagaries  and  the  deliberation  of  the 
wind,  but  the  merchant  service  is  not  always  in  such 
headlong  haste,  and  we  may  still  see,  floating  up  our 
rivers  and  gliding  into  our  harbors,  graceful  repre- 
sentatives of  the  ship  of  the  past  which  was  seen  every- 
where before  the  inordinate  demon  of  the  furnace  had 
robbed  the  winds  of  their  olden  task. 

It  must  not  be  judged  from  the  above  remarks  that 
the  writer  looks  upon  a  modern  battle-ship  as  a  thing 
destitute  of  beauty.  It  has  the  attraction  of  strength 
and  purpose.  Utility  is  its  distinguishing  feature, 
everything  has  been  stripped  away  but  what  is  of  direct 
use;  but  utility  has  always  a  charm  of  its  own,  and  our 
"  white  squadron"  has  been  justly  admired  despite  the 
fact  that  it  is  shorn  of  the  feathery,  flowing  grace  of 
the  battle-ship  of  the  past.  It  has  the  grace  of  the 
athlete  stripped  for  his  work,  and  rid  of  the  super- 
fluous braveries  of  attire,  and  from  this  point  of  view 
is  amply  worthy  of  admiration. 

The  change  in  the  make-up  of  the  navy  has  come 
upon  us  so  suddenly  that  the  new  names  for  types 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  145 

of  ships  do  not  convey  any  definite  meaning  to  many 
readers,  and  therefore  some  general  explanation  of 
them  seems  here  in  place.  They  read  of  "battle- 
ships," "  cruisers,"  "  monitors,"  "  destroyers,"  "  rams," 
"  torpedo-boats,"  etc.,  in  some  confusion  of  mind,  not 
knowing  the  significance  of  these  several  terms  or 
what  relation  the  ships  thus  named  bear  to  those  of  the 
past.  In  truth,  it  may  be  said  here  that  they  bear 
almost  no  relation,  except  in  their  general  warlike 
purpose,  the  ship  of  the  line,  frigate,  etc.,  of  our  earlier 
wars  having  no  strict  counterparts  in  the  navy  of  to- 
day. 

First  of  all  among  the  things  with  which  a  naval  ar- 
chitect has  to  deal,  in  considering  the  building  of  a  ship 
of  a  certain  size,  is  the  question  of  her  displacement. 
This  word,  which  may  seem  mysterious  to  many, 
simply  indicates  the  number  of  tons  of  water  a  vessel 
will  displace  or  force  out  when  afloat  upon  a  stream  or 
at  sea.  The  weight  of  the  ship  and  its  freightage  cause 
it  to  sink  to  a  certain  depth  in  the  water,  forcing  out 
a  certain  portion  of  the  liquid  to  make  room  for  its 
bulk,  and  the  weight  of  this  forced-out  or  displaced 
water,  estimated  in  tons,  constitutes  the  displacement 
of  the  ship,  indicating  its  total  weight  in  tons  when 
sunk  in  water  to  its  deepest  load-line. 

In  all  tabulated  statements  of  ships  will  be  seen  the 
three  terms,  "displacement,"  "gross  tonnage,"  and 
"  net  tonnage,"  an  explanation  of  which  at  this  point 
may  not  be  amiss,  as  their  significance  may  be  un- 
known to  many  readers.  By  "  gross  tonnage"  is  meant 
the  total  carrying  capacity  of  the  ship.  It  is  based 
upon  the  whole  interior  space,  obtained  by  measure- 
ment and  estimated  in  cubic  feet.  A  "register"  ton 

10 


146  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

is  simply  one  hundred  cubic  feet  of  space,  taxation  on 
tonnage  being  based  on  the  general  allowance  of  one 
ton  of  freight  to  that  amount  of  space.  In  estimating 
net  tonnage  allowance  is  made  for  the  parts  of  the 
ship  not  used  for  freight  or  passengers.  In  sailing  ves- 
sels this  represents  the  space  occupied  by  the  crew, 
which  may  make  little  reduction  in  the  gross  tonnage. 
But  in  steam-vessels,  where  the  space  occupied  by 
engines,  boilers,  coal,  etc.,  is  considered,  about  thirty- 
five  per  cent,  needs  to  be  deducted  from  the  gross  in 
estimating  the  net  tonnage. 

It  is  evident  that  by  this  method  the  actual  weight 
of  a  loaded  ship  cannot  be  obtained,  since  much  more 
than  a  ton  of  merchandise  may  occupy  the  one  hun- 
dred cubic  feet  of  space.  There  is  another  system  of 
measurement,  known  as  "  freight  tonnage,"  employed 
by  merchants  and  shippers  to  represent  stowage  ca- 
pacity, and  differing  from  "  register  tonnage,"  forty 
cubic  feet  of  space  representing  a  freight  ton.  But 
this  is  similarly  arbitrary,  since  the  weight  of  cargo 
in  a  fixed  space  depends  on  the  character  of  the  goods, 
and  may  greatly  differ  with  different  goods.  In  naval 
ships,  therefore,  it  is  customary  to  use  displacement 
tonnage,  estimated  by  the  depth  to  which  a  ship  of  war 
will  sink  when  carrying  its  full  load  of  guns,  ammuni- 
tion, men,  and  other  variable  equipment,  and  the 
weight  of  water  it  displaces  in  thus  sinking,  this 
weight  being  precisely  equal  to  the  total  weight  of  the 
ship  and  its  cargo. 

As  above  said,  the  question  of  displacement  needs 
to  be  carefully  considered  by  the  naval  architect.  The 
displacement  tonnage  must  be  properly  distributed 
among  the  various  elements  of  the  ship  and  its  load, 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  147 

part  being  given  to  the  hull,  part  to  its  weight  of 
armor,  part  to  its  guns,  and  the  remainder  divided 
up  among  its  engines  and  other  machinery,  coal  and 
other  stores,  furnishing,  and  general  equipment.  This 
allotment  of  weight  needs  to  be  judiciously  made. 
If  it  is  found  necessary  to  add  to  one  portion  of  the 
weight,  a  deduction  must  be  made  from  the  others, 
so  that  the  ship  shall  not  sink  below  the  estimated 
depth.  Some  of  the  elements  of  equipment  cannot 
vary  much,  but  there  may  be  considerable  difference 
in  the  weight  of  guns,  armor,  engines  and  coal-supply, 
and  these  require  to  be  varied  in  accordance  with  the 
purpose  of  the  ship.  For  instance,  if  great  speed  is 
demanded,  so  much  of  the  available  weight  must  be 
given  to  the  engines  and  other  parts  of  the  machinery 
of  motion  that  the  weight  of  armor  and  guns  is 
obliged  to  be  proportionately  reduced.  If  less  speed 
is  wished  for,  the  weight  taken  from  the  machinery 
can  be  given  to  the  armor  and  guns,  a  side  armor  and 
heavy  turrets  being  added  to  the  ship,  with  a  greater 
weight  in  guns  and  ammunition.  Again,  if  the  main 
purpose  is  to  produce  a  very  powerful  war-ship,  the 
means  of  driving  the  vessel  rapidly  through  the  water 
must  be  reduced,  and  the  weight  taken  from  the  ma- 
chinery added  to  the  armor  and  guns,  a  foot  or  a  foot 
and  a  half  of  solid  steel  protecting  the  hull  and  the 
turrets,  while  great  cannon,  weighing  sixty  or  more 
tons  apiece,  may  be  employed  as  weapons  of  offence. 
What  is  above  said  indicates  the  main  distinction 
between  the  battle-ship  and  the  cruiser.  The  modern 
BATTLE-SHIP  is  a  great  floating  engine  of  war,  with  a 
speed  of,  say,  sixteen  to  eighteen  knots  an  hour,  but 
with  armor  of  immense  resisting  power  surrounding 


148  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

every  portion  of  the  central  section  of  the  ship,  and 
enclosing  its  engines,  guns,  and  ammunition,  the  guns 
— which  are  the  most  powerful  that  any  ship  can  carry 
and  use  with  safety  and  effect — being  further  protected 
by  great  turrets  or  thick  shields  of  steel.  The  largest 
guns  now  used  on  forts  could  not  be  fired  from  a  ship 
without  serious  danger  to  the  stability  of  the  ship 
itself,  but  our  battle-ships  carry  the  largest  that  they 
can  safely  employ.  Such  is,  in  general  terms,  the 
battle-ship  of  to-day,  a  great  floating  citadel,  intended 
more  for  coast  defence  than  for  open  ocean  warfare, 
yet  capable  of  daring  the  fury  of  the  waves,  and  able 
to  bear  a  vast  amount  of  bombardment  without  serious 
injury. 

The  greatest  danger  to  which  such  a  ship  is  ex- 
posed is  from  under-water  attacks  by  the  torpedo,  the 
ram,  or  the  mine,  or  being  penetrated  at  the  water- 
line  by  fire  heavy  enough  to  break  through  its  armor 
belt.  This  peril  is  guarded  against  by  several  expe- 
dients, which  will  be  more  fully  described  in  later 
chapters,  and  need  but  be  glanced  at  here.  At  the 
water-line  a  backing  of  "  cellulose"  is  provided,  this 
being  an  expansive  substance  that  swells  when* wet, 
and  acts  to  close  any  opening  and  exclude  the  water 
from  the  ship.  For  bottom  protection  the  hull  is  made 
in  two  parts,  with  a  considerable  space  between,  which 
is  divided  up  into  numerous  water-tight  compart- 
ments. In  case  of  both  sections  of  the  hull  being 
broken  through,  every  enclosed  space  within  the  ship 
is  made  water-tight,  so  that  no  single  rent  in  the 
bottom  could  let  in  water  enough  to  sink  the  ship. 

In  addition  to  the  side  armor  and  that  of  the  bar- 
bettes and  turrets,  the  deck  is  also  made  of  steel  of, 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  149 

usually,  about  three  inches  in  thickness,  which  no 
ball  is  likely  to  strike  in  the  direct  line  necessary  for 
penetration,  most  of  the  missiles  striking  it  being  de- 
flected and  expected  to  glance  off  into  the  sea.  This 
covers  the  central,  box-like  citadel,  which  is  composed 
of  the  two  walls  of  side  .armor  and  two  transverse  walls 
crossing  the  ship  fore  and  aft  and  joining  the  ends  of 
the  side  belts  of  steel.  From  these  walls  protective 
decks  extend  below  the  water-line  to  the  two  ends  of 
the  ship.  A  vessel  thus  loaded  with  armor  and  guns 
is  necessarily  very  heavy,  its  speed  being  diminished 
in  proportion,  nearly  all  first-class  battle-ships  having 
a  displacement  of  ten  thousand  tons  or  more,  and 
some  of  those  in  foreign  navies  running  up  to  nearly 
sixteen  thousand  tons. 

A  battle-ship  is,  in  brief,  a  floating  colony  of  steel, 
which,  if  placed  in  an  ordinary  city  street,  would  fill 
a  square  or  block  from  end  to  end  and  side  to  side, 
rising  to  or  above  the  roofs  of  the  houses,  inhabited 
by  some  five  hundred  men,  and  enclosed  in  steel  from 
three  to  eighteen  inches  thick.  Its  speed  averages 
about  fifteen  knots  an  hour,  and  its  armament  is  com- 
posed of  guns  ranging  from  the  great  1 3-inch  rifle, 
with  its  noo-pound  projectile,  to  the  Catling  of  .23- 
inch  bore  pouring  out  bullets  of  f-ounce  weight. 

The  MONITOR  is  in  its  way  a  battle-ship,  but  one  of 
distinctively  different  type  from  that  described.  It  is 
more  decisively  than  the  above  a  coast-defence  vessel, 
its  slow  speed  rendering  it  of  minor  value  for  cruising 
purposes,  and  its  low  freeboard  (or  height  of  the  side 
above  the  water)  making  it  none  too  safe  to  trust  at 
sea.  The  original  Monitor  was  in  imminent  peril  of 
foundering  during  her  first  voyage  from  New  York 


150  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

to  Hampton  Roads.  What  the  result  of  such  a  dis- 
aster— one  leaving  the  Merrimac  free  to  work  her  will 
— would  have  been  it  is  impossible  to  say.  In  her 
last  venture  in  open  waters  this  epoch-making  vessel 
encountered  another  storm  and  went  to  the  bottom 
of  the  sea.  Fortunately,  her  work  was  done.  The 
monitor  has  the  armored  side  and  deck  and  the  steel- 
clad  turrets  of  the  battle-ship,  but  differs  in  its  free- 
board, which  varies  from  a  few  feet  to  only  a  few 
inches  in  height.  It  also  lacks  a  powerful  secondary 
battery,  depending  upon  its  few  great  guns,  two  of 
these  forming  the  entire  armament  of  the  early,  single- 
turreted  ships  of  this  class.  The  more  recent  monitors 
of  our  navy  are  better  provided  with  means  of  offence. 

To  make  a  good  sea-going  vessel  of  a  monitor  it 
would  be  necessary  to  add  one  or  more  decks,  build- 
ing her  sides  up  out  of  the  water,  and  to  lift  the  turrets 
correspondingly  in  height.  But  a  vessel  thus  treated 
would  cease  to  be  a  monitor,  and  could  claim  its  place 
among  the  battle-ships. 

The  CRUISER  constitutes  a  third  class  of  war-vessels, 
in  which  the  requirements  of  offence  and  defence  are 
in  a  measure  subordinated  to  that  of  speed.  These  are 
of  several  classes,  distinctively  known  as  "armored," 
"  protected,"  and  "  unprotected."  A  typical  example 
of  the  armored  class  is  the  New  York,  whose  sides  are 
protected  amidships  by  a  belt  of  steel  armor  of  4-inch 
thickness.  The  turrets  and  the  barbettes  from  which 
they  rise  are  also  protected,  but  all  this  armor  is  much 
lighter  in  weight  than  in  the  battle-ships,  the  requi- 
sites of  lightness  and  speed  being  of  first  importance. 
The  deck  is  protected  by  a  plating  of  3-inch  steel, 
which  curves  downward  at  the  sides  and  there  be- 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  151 

comes  of  6-inch  thickness,  extending  downward  to 
several  feet  below  the  water-line.  The  New  York, 
therefore,  has  below  her  deck  level  amidships  nine 
inches  of  solid  steel,  whose  icsistance  is  further  added 
to  by  about  six  feet  of  coal  in  the  adjoining  bunkers. 

The  protected  cruiser  differs  from  the  above  in 
having  no  side  armor,  its  sole  protection  being  its 
armored  deck  with  its  down-sloping  sides,  and  the 
coal  bunkers  to  shield  its  central  parts.  These  vessels 
lack  also  the  barbettes  and  turrets,  their  guns  being 
protected  only  by  shields  of  steel  or  steel  casements 
built  out  from  the  hull.  The  third  class  of  cruisers, 
the  unprotected,  have  no  armored  protection,  except 
for  their  guns,  depending  upon  speed  to  escape  too 
strong  an  enemy. 

It  is  to  its  speed  that  the  cruiser  owes  its  safety  from 
the  battle-ship,  which  is  far  beyond  it  in  powers  of 
destruction.  It  is  its  duty  to  search  all  seas  for  the 
enemy's  ships,  to  destroy  or  capture  merchantmen, 
keep  the  battle-ships  advised  of  the  movements  of 
hostile  fleets,  and  perform  the  general  scouting  duties 
which  the  frigate  did  for  the  line-of-ba^tle  ship  of 
former  navies,  It  may  serve  to  convoy  fleets  of  mer- 
chantmen, dash  at  top  speed  to  convey  important  in- 
formation quickly,  and  take  its  part  in  battle  where 
ships  of  its  own  class  are  to  be  met.  Armored  cruisers, 
like  the  New  York  and  Brooklyn,  may  on  occasion 
try  conclusions  with  battle-ships,  with  some  hope  of 
success,  and  our  coming  navy  is  likely  to  contain  more 
vessels  of  this  useful  intermediate  type. 

For  the  special  duties  of  the  cruiser  powerful  en- 
gines are  necessary,  with  provision  for  a  large  coal- 
supply,  that  she  may  keep  the  sea  for  a  long  period. 


152  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

She  needs  a  high  freeboard,  to  adapt  her  for  rapid 
steaming  in  all  weathers;  fine  and  fair  lines,  to  give 
her  high  speed;  ample  space  for  the  accommodation 
of  a  numerous  crew,  some  of  whom  may  be  needed 
to  take  charge  of  prizes;  and,  finally,  a  powerful  bat- 
tery of  guns  of  medium  caliber,  that  she  may  give  a 
good  account  of  herself  with  ships  of  her  own  class. 
Such  are  the  characteristics  and  requisites  of  the  ships 
which  make  up  the  greater  part  of  our  existing  navy. 

It  must  be  said,  in  conclusion  of  this  section  of  the 
chapter,  that  battle-ships  and  cruisers  show  a  tendency 
to  run  together  at  their  dividing  line,  there  being  no 
hard  and  fast  limits  of  distinction.  For  instance,  in 
the  Viscaya  we  have  a  Spanish  cruiser  carrying  12- 
inch  armor  and  provided  with  guns  of  n-inch  caliber, 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Japanese  battle-ship 
Yashima,  with  the  large  displacement  of  12,370  tons, 
is  credited  with  a  trial  speed  of  nineteen  and  one-half 
knots.  Finally,  the  unfortunate  Maine  was  built  as  an 
armored  cruiser,  but  when  completed  was  placed  on 
the  official  register  as  a  second-class  battle-ship. 

Of  ships  of  specially  new  design,  born  from  the  exi- 
gencies of  modern  warfare,  may  be  named  the  armored 
ram,  of  which  there  are  only  two,  specially  restricted 
to  this  purpose,  in  existence,  the  British  Polyphemus 
and  the  American  Katahdin.  The  use  of  the  ram 
itself,  as  an  addition  to  the  prow  of  a  vessel,  is  of 
ancient  date,  it  having  been  employed  in  the  wars  of 
Greece  and  Rome.  It  has  been  much  considered  in 
modern  ship-building,  though  its  service  hitherto  in 
warfare  has  not  been  great.  What  the  Katahdin, 
built  solely  for  this  purpose,  is  likely  to  effect  in  actual 
battle  remains  to  be  demonstrated. 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  153 

Another  boat  peculiar  to  the  American  navy  is  one 
armed  with  tubes  for  the  discharge  of  dynamite  bombs 
against  a  hostile  vessel.  The  utility  of  this  vessel  in 
actual  service  is  much  doubted,  and  the  suggestion  to 
convert  it  into  an  ordinary  gunboat  has  been  fre- 
quently made. 

The  TORPEDO-BOAT  is,  like  the  ram  and  the  dyna- 
mite boat,  a  result  of  the  conditions  of  modern  war- 
fare. The  torpedo  as  an  agent  in  war  came  into  use 
in  the  Civil  War,  in  some  cases  as  a  sunken  bomb,  and 
in  two  instances  as  a  torpedo  borne  by  a  boat,  these 
being  the  occasions  of  the  sinking  of  the  Housatonic 
by  a  Confederate  craft  and  of  the  sinking  of  the  iron- 
clad Albemarle  by  the  gallant  Cushing.  In  both  these 
instances  the  torpedo  was  carried  on  the  end  of  a  spar 
in  the  prow  of  the  boat,  but  the  modern  torpedo-boat 
discharges  its  destructive  missile  from  a  gun  capable 
of  driving  it  for  some  distance  through  the  water. 
These  boats  are  of  small  size  and  great  swiftness,  their 
mode  of  warfare  being  to  creep  on  a  hostile  ship  under 
cover  of  night,  discharge  their  death-dealing  weapon, 
and  glide  away  as  rapidly  and  silently  as  they  came. 
The  torpedo-boat  is  the  most  dreaded  type  of  modern 
war-vessels,  her  powers  of  destruction  being  great  as 
compared  with  her  diminutive  size,  and  ships  of  war 
are  kept  on  the  qui  vive  at  night  to  prevent  the  stealthy 
approach  of  these  agents  of  terror. 

As  a  counter-agent  the  torpedo-boat  destroyer,  or, 
briefly,  the  DESTROYER,  has  been  devised,  a  boat  de- 
signed to  make  thirty  or  more  knots  per  hour,  and 
to  run  down  and  destroy,  if  possible,  the  diminutive 
foe  of  the  great  floating  citadel  of  war.  In  the  evolu- 
tion of  modern  fleets  still  another  step  has  been  taken 


154  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

in  this  strange  series,  in  the  appearance  of  the  de- 
stroyer of  the  torpedo-boat  destroyer,  designed  to  play 
the  same  hostile  part  against  the  latter  as  it  plays 
against  the  torpedo-boat  itself,  and  the  latter  against 
the  great  ships  of  war.  Where  these  successive  steps 
of  destructiveness  will  stop  it  is  not  easy  to  say,  but 
it  may  be  taken  for  granted  that  the  evolution  of 
modern  ships  of  war  has  not  yet  reached  its  ultimate 
stage. 

A  modern  war-ship  is  not  intended  as  a  destroyer  of 
towns.  It  carries  a  limited  supply  of  ammunition,  its 
great  guns  rapidly  exhausting  the  magazines.  It  there- 
fore cannot  fire  much  without  peril  of  being  caught 
by  a  hostile  ship  with  a  short  supply.  And  its  stock 
is  made  up  in  considerable  part  of  armor-piercing  pro- 
jectiles, useless,  if  solid  shot,  in  attacking  towns,  and 
unsuited  for  this  purpose  if  shell.  Each  shot  might 
be  worth  much  more  than  the  damage  it  would  be 
likely  to  inflict.  Towns  are  therefore  not  likely  to 
be  attacked  without  strong  necessity,  and  there  is  little 
danger  of  war-ships  wasting  their  ammunition  on  un- 
defended sea-coast  places  through  sheer  desire  to  in- 
flict injury.  If  they  have  hostile  fleets  to  meet,  they 
cannot  afford  to  waste  the  sinews  of  war  in  idle  by-play 
like  this. 

In  contending  with  fortifications  ships  of  war  now 
stand  much  farther  off  than  formerly.  In  the  Civil 
War  grape  and  canister  were  used  effectively  by  forts 
at  the  short  range  within  which  ships  then  ventured. 
At  long  range  the  chief  peril  lay  in  bursting  shells  and 
flying  splinters.  At  present  huge  shells  from  high- 
power  guns  will  come  on  board  at  several  miles'  dis- 
tance, and  at  a  discouraging  rapidity,  it  being  possible 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  155 

to  load  and  fire  the  great  12-  or  1 3-inch  guns  once 
nearly  every  three  minutes.  At  a  little  under  two 
miles  the  fire  from  the  5-  and  6-inch  rapid-fire  guns 
begins  to  make  itself  seriously  felt,  aimed  shots  coming 
at  the  rate  of  seven  or  more  a  minute.  Farther  in 
the  6-pounder  begins  to  pour  in  its  fire  at  the  rate  of 
forty  shots  a  minute,  and  finally  the  machine  i- 
pounders  and  Maxim-Nordenfelt  guns  empty  their 
hoppers  at  the  frightful  rate  of  two  hundred  per  min- 
ute. The  rain  of  shot  and  shell  from  such  a  ship  or 
fort  is  something  fearful  to  contemplate. 

On  board  ship  no  place  is  safe.  The  marines  in  the 
military  tops  are  likely  to  be  swept  away.  The  coal- 
passers  and  engineers  below  are  in  danger  of  scalding 
from  punctured  boilers.  The  captain  in  his  steel  box 
is  in  special  peril.  No  member  of  the  crew  is  safe. 
And  any  wood-work  on  the  ship  is  in  constant  danger 
of  being  set  on  fire,  for  which  reason,  in  late  construc- 
tion, great  care  is  taken  to  use  as  little  wood  in  ex- 
posed situations  as  possible. 

In  the  words  of  a  recent  writer,  a  ship  of  war  is  like 
a  floating  village.  It  has  to  house,  feed,  and  give 
employment  to  its  inhabitants,  who,  unlike  villagers, 
are  constantly  kept  on  the  alert  to  face  unknown  con- 
ditions, and  are  trained  to  do  so  with  unflinching  cool- 
ness and  courage.  This  moving  community,  with  its 
five  hundred  more  or  less  of  inhabitants,  is  a  realm 
of  alertness  and  vigilance.  Its  people  are  expected 
to  be  always  ready  to  face  some  contingency  as  start- 
ling as  a  midnight  alarm  of  fire  on  land.  Such  is 
their  discipline  that  they  are  expected  to  rouse  from 
slumber  and  be  at  their  post  of  duty  withm  a  very 
few  minutes,  ready  to  perform  the  special  work  to 


156  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

which  they  are  assigned.  And  this  is  not  solely  the 
exciting  work  of  manning  guns  and  facing  the  enemy. 
There  are  many  who  see  nothing  of  the  fighting,  yet 
who  take  full  risks  with  those  in  the  thick  of  the  fray; 
men  who  feed  the  fires,  hoist  the  ammunition,  and  do 
other  unseen  labors,  not  knowing  what  is  being  done 
above,  and  whether  their  ship  is  winning  the  victory 
or  is  being  torn  to  pieces  by  the  enemy's  shot,  and 
likely  at  any  moment  to  be  sunk  by  mine  or  torpedo, 
torn  into  fragments  by  an  exploding  magazine  or  filled 
with  scalding  steam  from  a  pierced  boiler. 

Yet  all  are  expected  to  keep  to  their  posts  and 
calmly  perform  their  duty  regardless  of  all  this,  to  act 
like  arms  and  fingers  under  the  direction  of  the  brain 
that  occupies  the  conning-tower,  to  act,  not  to  think, 
unless  some  unusual  contingency  arises,  when  an 
American  sailor  is  expected  to  use  the  intelligence 
and  the  readiness  which  distinguish  the  American 
character.  Discipline  on  such  a  ship  must  be  rigid 
and  unremitting.  Its  family  of  seamen  and  artisans 
must  move  together  as  one  man.  Eternal  vigilance  is 
the  only  assurance  of  safety,  and  laxness  in  action  or 
ignorance  of  duty  when  the  supreme  moment  arrives 
may  prove  the  factor  that  brings  sure  and  swift  ruin, 
while  in  able  adaptation  to  the  situation  safety  is  likely 
to  dwell. 

A  modern  battle-ship  has  grown  to  be  an  automatic 
machine,  an  instrument  of  warfare  in  which  almost 
nothing  is  done  by  hand.  There  is  no  longer  hasty 
leaping  about  from  post  to  post;  flying  to  mast-tops  to 
set  or  furl  sails;  dashing  to  the  gun-deck  to  haul  the 
guns  in  from  their  ports,  thrust  in  powder  and  balls 
and  ram  them  home;  carrying  up  the  ammunition  to 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  157 

the  gun-decks  by  hand;  rushing  about  in  seeming 
confusion,  every  man  ready  to  turn  his  hand  to  a  dozen 
things  at  once.  Then  all  was  done  by  hand  and  all 
in  tearing  haste.  Now  the  hand  has  little  to  do,  ex- 
cept to  move  levers,  press  electric  buttons,  open  and 
close  throttles,  and  the  like.  The  ship  is  a  mighty 
labor-saving  machine,  which,  when  the  right  valve  is 
touched  or  lever  moved,  does  all  the  rest.  The  ship 
is  steered,  her  boats  hoisted  out  and  in,  her  interior 
lighted,  and  the  sea  around  her  as  well,  her  guns 
loaded,  aimed,  and  fired,  her  turrets  revolved,  her  am- 
munition lifted  to  place,  her  torpedoes  ejected,  all  by 
aid  of  mechanical  devices.  The  captain,  no  longer 
standing  on  his  quarter-deck  and  shouting  his  orders 
through  speaking-trumpet  against  the  wind,  rests 
snugly — or  perhaps  not  very  snugly — in  his  nest  of 
solid  steel,  and  by  touch  of  finger  to  an  electric  button, 
or  call  into  tube  or  telephone,  sends  his  orders  to  the 
right  spot  at  the  right  time,  without  fear  of  their  being 
swept  away  by  the  gale. 

The  growth  of  complexity  of  parts  and  minute  sub- 
division of  duties,  the  multiplication  of  mechanical  de- 
vices, in  the  battle-ship  of  recent  years  is  bewilder- 
ingly  large.  Something  of  the  kind  showed  itself  in 
the  Civil  War.  The  Monitor  and  the  New  Ironsides 
began  the  use  of  labor-saving  appliances,  but  these 
early  ironclads  were  phenomenally  crude  as  compared 
with  the  floating  machine-shop  and  electrical  labora- 
tory which  to-day  bears  the  name  of  a  ship  of  war. 
While  the  duty  and  training  of  the  sailor  of  the  past 
resembled  those  of  the  old-time  artisan  who  could  do 
everything  in  his  trade  with  some  measure  of  ability, 
those  of  the  seaman  of  to-day  are  like  the  training  of 


158  f  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

the  modern  artisan,  who  is  taught  to  make  a  single 
part  of  a  watch  or  machine,  but  is  expected  to  do  that 
with  the  perfection  of  skill. 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE  NEW  AMERICAN  MONITORS. 

As  was  said  in  a  preceding  chapter,  for  twenty  years 
after  the  end  of  the  Civil  War  the  United  States  did 
nothing  towards  the  development  of  a  navy  on  the 
new  lines,  watching  with  much  interest  the  work  of 
the  naval  architects  of  Europe,  but  making  no  en- 
deavor to  emulate  them.  This  might  at  first  sight 
appear  too  strong  a  statement,  since  a  number  of  new 
monitors,  of  superior  character  to  those  built  during 
the  war,  were  ordered  in  1874.  But  little  was  done 
beyond  laying  the  keels  and  slowly  building  up  the 
shells  of  these  vessels,  an  order  for  their  completion 
being  delayed  until  1885,  while  most  of  them  were 
not  completed  and  put  into  commission  until  1896. 

Meanwhile,  vessels  of  the  monitor  type  were  being 
constructed  abroad.  We  have  described  several  of 
those  built  in  British  yards,  and  might  name  a  number 
of  others,  including  the  single-turreted  Glatton  and 
several  provided  with  two  turrets.  The  Russian  Gov- 
ernment was  strongly  impressed  with  the  naval  events 
of  our  Civil  War,  and  in  1863  ordered  the  building  of 
ten  monitors,  which  were  constructed  in  the  Baltic. 
In  1870  two  others  of  remarkable  character  were  built 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  159 

for  the  waters  of  the  Black  Sea,  and  named  the  Nov- 
gorod and  the  Admiral  Popoff.  These  strange  vessels 
were  nearly  circular  in  form,  the  largest  being  one 
hundred  and  twenty  feet  long  by  ninety-six  feet  wide, 
their  bottoms  being  flat  and  drawing  fourteen  feet  of 
water.  A  central  circular  barbette  carried  two  4O-ton 
guns.  These  were  rather  floating  forts  than  ships, 
their  utmost  speed  being  six  knots,  while  they  proved 
very  difficult  to  steer,  showing  an  awkward  tendency 
to  revolve  like  a  saucer  in  the  water.  As  ships  they 
were  useless,  and  their  value  as  floating  forts  was  not 
tested  in  the  war  with  Turkey.  We  mention  them 
here  simply  as  curious  and  largely  useless  conceptions 
of  an  unpractical  naval  official. 

The  American  monitors  ordered  in  1874  were  five 
in  number, — the  Amphitrite,  the  Miantonomoh,  the 
Monadnock,  the  Terror,  and  the  Puritan, — each  pro- 
vided with  two  turrets  and  in  other  respects  presenting 
marked  improvements  over  the  single-turreted  moni- 
tors of  the  Civil  War.  They  succeeded,  as  has  al- 
ready been  stated,  earlier  ones  of  the  same  names.  Of 
these,  the  four  first  named  are  sister  ships,  and  a  de- 
scription of  one  will  answer  for  all.  The  Puritan  is  a 
considerably  larger  vessel  and  more  heavily  armed 
than  the  others.  Our  existing  navy  contains  still 
another  monitor,  the  Monterey,  built  in  1889-92  by 
the  Union  Iron-Works  of  San  Francisco,  and,  in 
common  with  the  Monadnock,  also  built  in  California, 
forming  part  of  our  Pacific  fleet.  The  others  were 
built  on  the  Delaware,  one  at  Wilmington,  two  at 
Chester,  and  one  at  Philadelphia. 

The  AMPHITRITE,  built  at  Wilmington,  Delaware, 
is  a  double-hulled  vessel,  like  all  recent  ships  of  war, 


160  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

the  double  bottom  of  iron  coming  up  to  within  three 
feet  of  the  water-line,  where  it  forms  a  shelf  for  the 
support  of  the  belt  of  armor.     This  is  of  steel  and 
extends  from  stem  to  stern  of  the  vessel,  its  thickness 
being  nine  inches  amidship,  from  which  it  tapers  to 
five  inches  at  the  ends.     The  armor-belt  is  seven  feet 
in  width,  reaching  to  a  depth  of  three  feet  below  the 
water  and  upward  to  the  main  deck,  which  stands  four 
feet  above  the  water-line.     The  deck  is  of    if -inch 
steel,  overlaid  with  wood.     The  delay  in  finishing  this 
and  its  sister  vessels  has  proved  to  their  advantage, 
in  enabling  them  to  be  completed  in  the  most  approved 
manner  and  with  the  advantage  of  all  recent  improve- 
ments in  guns  and  armor.     Thus  the  two  turrets  and 
the  barbettes  from  which  they  rise  are  plated  with 
Harveyized  steel,  which  is  eleven  and  one-half  inches 
in  thickness  on  the  barbettes  and  seven  and  one-half 
on  the  turrets,  the  latter  having  roofs  of  if -inch  steel. 
The  technical  terms  here  employed  call  for  some 
explanation.     In  recent  ships  the  gun-bearing  turrets 
do  not  rise  from  the  lower  deck,  as  in  the  old  monitors, 
but  descend  into  circular  shields  of  steel,  to  which  has 
been  given  the  French  title  of  barbette,  already  de- 
scribed, and  which  protect  the  lower  section  of  the 
turrets  and  contain  the  apparatus  for  their  revolution. 
The  arrangement  may  be  likened  to  a  cylindrical  box 
with  a  closed  top  descending  into  a  somewhat  larger 
open  cylinder.      In  other  words,  the  barbette  differs 
from  the  turret  in  being  open  at  the  top,  so  that  the 
gun  may  be  lifted  above  it,  while  it  may  form  a  com- 
plete circle,  as  in  this  case,  or  a  shield  open  in  the 
rear,  like  the  barbettes  of  French  and  British  ships 
already  spoken  of,     Harveyized  steel  will  be  described 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  161 

in  a  later  chapter,  and  it  must  suffice  here  to  say  that 
it  is  a  surface-hardened  steel  of  great  resisting  powers. 

The  Amphitrite,  in  common  with  her  sister  ships, 
has  a  length  on  the  water-line  of  two  hundred  and 
fifty-nine  feet  six  inches,  a  breadth  of  beam  of  fifty- 
five  feet  six  inches,  and  a  depth  of  fourteen  feet  six 
inches,  her  main  deck  standing  four  feet  out  of  the 
water,  or  about  twice  the  height  of  that  of  the  older 
monitors.  She  was  fitted,  when  originally  laid  down, 
with  twin-screw  engines  of  1600  horse-power,  and 
these  still  drive  her,  their  varied  and  intricate  parts 
being  very  ingeniously  stowed  away  in  the  narrow 
space  below  the  protective  deck.  These  engines  are 
capable  of  giving  the  vessel  a  speed  of  10.5  knots. 
The  coal  bunkers  have  capacity  for  a  maximum  supply 
of  two  hundred  and  fifty  tons,  and  the  displacement, 
under  full  load,  is  3990  tons. 

Just  abaft  the  forward  turret  stands  the  conning- 
tower,  a  structure  of  9-inch  Harveyized  steel,  whose 
purpose  needs  some  explanation.  The  conning-tower 
may  be  said  to  form  the  brain  of  all  modern  war-ships. 
It  is  the  post  of  the  captain  during  a  battle,  and  is 
arranged  to  give  him  a  broad  outlook  over  the  sur- 
rounding waters,  while  affording  him  protection  from 
danger  and  enabling  him  to  control  every  operation 
of  the  ship.  Speaking-tubes,  electric  wires,  and  other 
devices  connect  him  directly  with  the  helmsman,  the 
engineers,  and  the  crews  of  the  great  guns,  and  he  can, 
without  stirring  from  his  steel  cell,  direct  the  move- 
ments of  the  rudder,  engines,  and  guns,  and,  if  he 
wishes,  can  fire  the  guns  himself,  by  the  mere  pressure 
of  an  electric  button. 

The  field  of  sight  of  the  captain  is  obtained  by  aid 
ii 


162  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

of  narrow  horizontal  slits  through  the  thick  steel  of 
the  tower,  at  the  level  of  the  eye.  These  enable  him 
to  follow  the  movements  of  hostile  ships  and  give 
prompt  orders  to  officers  and  others  in  every  section 
of  the  floating  fort  beneath  him.  As  the  body  of  man 
moves  in  quick  response  to  every  order  coming  from 
the  brain,  so  does  the  great  mass  of  wood  and  iron 
turn  and  vibrate  or  send  its  mighty  missiles  of  war 
over  miles  of  sea  in  instant  response  to  the  thinking 
brain  within  that  central  cell  of  steel. 

The  position  of  the  captain  is  far  from  a  safe  and  is 
by  no  means  an  agreeable  one.  He  stands  in  battle 
in  the  centre  of  a  terrible  uproar,  that  of  the  shells 
of  the  enemy  bursting  around  him,  the  deafening  roar 
of  his  own  heavy  cannon,  the  incessant  din  of  the 
quick-firing  guns,  the  rushing  noise  of  the  force  blast 
under  the  engines,  and  various  other  ear-disturbing 
sounds  which  only  a  man  of  exceptional  self-control 
could  withstand.  And  his  lurking-place  is  apt  to  be 
made  the  goal  of  a  direct  attack  by  the  enemy,  when 
to  the  noises  named  are  likely  to  be  added  those  of 
shells  and  balls  striking  the  tower  with  terrible  force 
and  with  a  crash  seemingly  sufficient  to  destroy  not 
only  the  hearing  but  the  brain  itself  of  the  bombarded 
victim  within.  As  some  witty  writer  says,  the  safest 
place  for  the  captain  would  seem  to  be,  not  within, 
but  behind  the  conning-tower. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  peril  of  the  captain's  posi- 
tion, we  may  return  to  the  original  conning-tower,  the 
pilot-house  of  the  Monitor,  which  stood  in  front  of 
the  turret  and  was  occupied  during  the  battle  with 
the  Merrimac  by  Captain  Worden  and  the  pilot.  The 
eye-holes  in  this  instance  consisted  of  narrow  slits  be- 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  163 

tween  the  iron  logs  of  which  the  enclosure  was  built. 
Near  the  close  of  the  battle  the  gunners  of  the  Mefri- 
mac  were  directed  to  concentrate  their  fire  upon  this 
structure,  and  a  shell,  fired  at  the  short  range  of  ten 
yards,  struck  the  iron  cell  and  burst  against  the  slot 
through  which  Captain  Worden  was  gazing.  In  an 
instant  he  was  flung  bleeding  and  blinded  across  the 
narrow  space,  cement  being  torn  from  the  inner  side 
of  the  wall  and  hurled  into  his  face  and  eyes.  He  was 
a  ghastly  object  when  picked  up,  and  spent  months 
subsequently  in  the  hospital.  Fortunately,  he  did 
not  lose  his  sight,  and  recovered  to  take  a  later  part  in 
the  war. 

The  fighting  capacity  of  the  Amphitrite  is  by  no 
means  small.  Each  of  the  turrets  contains  a  pair  of 
lo-inch  breech-loading  rifled  guns,  whose  power  of 
penetration  is  very  much  greater  than  that  of  the  n- 
inch  smooth-bores  of  the  first  Monitor,  or  of  the  15- 
inch  guns  of  her  successors.  Each  of  these  guns 
weighs  twenty-five  tons  and  is  capable  of  driving  from 
its  muzzle,  a  5oo-pound  shell  at  a  velocity  of  two  thou- 
sand feet  per  second.  The  huge  guns  of  the  Monitor 
proved  incapable  of  penetrating  the  4^-inch  iron  sides 
of  the  Merrimac  when  nearly  touching,  but  the  10- 
inch  rifles  of  the  Amphitrite  could  send  their  balls  at 
that  distance  through  more  than  a  foot  of  steel,  and  are 
calculated  to  penetrate  fifteen  inches  of  iron  armor 
on  vessel  or  fort  more  than  a  mile  away. 

In  addition  to  the  turret  guns  the  Amphitrite  carries 
upon  her  decks  two  4-inch  rapid-fire  guns  and  a  sec- 
ondary battery  of  two  6-  and  two  3-pounder  rapid- 
fire  guns,  two  i -pounder  Catlings,  and  two  Hotchkiss 
revolving  cannon,  an  armament  capable  of  pouring 


164  THE  NATION'S   NAVY. 

from  its  iron  mouths  a  frightful  rain  of  bullets  upon 
any  hostile  craft.  The  4-inch  guns  belong  to  the  most 
effective  class  of  modern  marine  ordnance.  They  stand 
upon  a  steel  pedestal  which  is  firmly  bolted  to  the  deck. 
Upon  this  the  gun-carriage  rotates  on  a  circle  of 
rollers,  and  can  be  easily  elevated,  depressed,  and  di- 
rected through  a  considerable  width  of  range.  In 
front  of  the  gun  is  a  semicircular  shield  of  2-inch 
steel,  which  moves  with  it  and  protects  its  crew  and 
revolving  apparatus. 

Between  the  turrets  of  this  vessel  stands  the  mili- 
tary mast,  and  an  upper  deck  on  which  are  carried  the 
4-inch  and  some  of  the  other  guns  just  described. 
The  fighting-top  of  the  mast  constitutes  an  armored 
platform  on  which  are  stationed  some  of  the  smaller 
guns. 

Of  the  other  monitors  named  the  MONADNOCK  is 
similar  in  size,  armor,  and  armament  to  the  Amphi- 
trite,  but  is  superior  in  motive  power  and  speed,  her 
engines,  of  the  triple  expansion  type,  yielding  3000 
horse-power  and  her  speed  being  twelve  knots. 

The  TERROR  was  built  at  the  ship-yard  of  the 
Cramps  at  Philadelphia,  the  keel  being  laid  in  1874 
and  the  completed  ship  put  in  commission  in  1896. 
She  differs  from  the  two  monitors  described  in  having 
no  barbettes,  the  turrets  rising  through  and  project- 
ing above  the  main  deck,  as  in  the  original  Monitor. 
This  boat  is  of  the  same  dimensions  and  displacement 
as  the  Amphitrite  and  of  the  same  horse-power,  speed, 
and  coal  capacity.  She  differs,  however,  in  armor  and 
armament,  her  side  armor  being  but  seven  inches  in 
thickness.  The  turrets  are  plated  with  nj-inch 
armor.  Her  main  armament  consists  of  four  lo-inch 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  165 

breech-loading  rifles,  two  in  each  turret,  the  4-inch 
rapid-fire  guns  of  the  Amphitrite  and  Monadnock 
being  omitted.  Her  secondary  battery  is  nearly  the 
same  as  that  of  the  Amphitrite,  consisting  of  two  each 
of  6-pounder,  3-pounder,  and  I -pounder  rapid-fire 
guns,  two  Hotchkiss  revolving  cannon,  and  two  Gat- 
lings. 

The  leading  feature  of  interest  in  the  Terror  is  the 
lately  introduced  compressed-air  system  for  steering 
the  ship  and  loading  and  handling  her  guns,  an  in- 
novation which  has  been  received  with  much  com- 
mendation. Steam-power  and  hydraulic  power  had 
previously  been  employed  for  these  purposes,  but  the 
new  agent  appears  to  have  elements  of  superiority 
over  both  its  competitors.  One  of  its  main  advan- 
tages has  to  do  with  ventilation.  Steam  and  hydraulic 
engines  exhaust  outwardly,  by  means  of  pipes  passing 
through  the  hull  of  the  ship,  but  the  pneumatic  or 
compressed-air  engine  may  be  made  to  exhaust  either 
into  the  outer  air  or  into  the  ship.  The  flow  of  air 
from  the  exhaust  pipes  of  a  pneumatic  engine  would 
be  of  the  greatest  service  as  a  means  of  ventilation  in 
some  confined  portions  of  a  ship's  interior,  as  in  the 
close  and  contracted  steering-room,  situated  far  aft 
below  the  protective  deck,  or  in  the  interior  of  the 
turret,  with  its  heat-yielding  machinery  and  its  crowd 
of  men  during  a  battle.  Localities  which  would  be 
uncomfortably  hot  if  provided  with  steam  piping,  and 
also  exposed  to  danger  from  the  possibility  of  a  steam- 
pipe  breaking  during  action,  could  with  pneumatic 
power  avoid  these  difficulties  and  be  supplied  with  air 
of  reduced  and  even  temperature.  The  greater  clean, 
ness  and  convenience  of  the  pneumatic  system  are 


i66  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

other  points  in  its  favor,  the  discomfort  arising  from 
the  frequent  leaking  of  the  cylinders  and  pipes  of  the 
hydraulic  system  being  avoided. 

In  the  Terror  the  compressed  air  is  employed  in  the 
diverse  duties  of  revolving  the  turrets,  elevating  or 
depressing  the  guns,  lifting  the  ammunition  into  the 
hoisting  cages,  raising  these  to  the  breech  of  the  gun, 
ramming  home  the  charge,  closing  the  breech,  taking 
up  the  recoil  on  firing,  and  steering  the  ship.  Two 
separate  steam-engines  serve  to  compress  the  air 
which  is  required  for  these  various  purposes. 

For  the  turning  of  the  turret  two  pneumatic  engines 
are  provided,  they  being  placed  on  the  floor  of  the 
turret,  one  on  each  side  of  its  big  guns,  and  turning 
with  it  as  it  revolves  on  its  circle  of  wheels.  These 
engines  are  easily  controlled  by  the  officer  who  oc- 
cupies the  sighting-hood  rising  above  the  roof  of  the 
turret,  there  being  levers  and  hand-wheels  by  whose 
aid  he  can  turn  the  great  iron  cage  and  direct  the  guns 
towards  any  point  he  may  desire. 

Hinged  to  the  floor  of  the  turret  is  a  massive  ram, 
which  bears  against  a  shoe  on  the  under  side  of  the 
gun-carriage,  its  purpose  being  to  elevate  or  depress 
the  gun.  When  the  gun  is  to  be  elevated  a  mixture 
of  glycerin  and  water  is  forced  by  compressed  air 
from  an  adjacent  cylinder  into  the  ram,  which  is  forced 
vigorously  upward.  The  reverse  operation  serves  for 
depression.  Valves  regulate  the  supply,  and  these  are 
under  the  control  of  the  officer  in  the  sighting-hood, 
who  is  thus  enabled  by  the  movement  of  his  hand  to 
elevate  and  train  the  gun  as  he  will. 

The  sighting  telescope  by  which  the  conning  officer 
fixes  the  position  of  the  distant  target  is  connected  with 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  167 

each  gun  by  a  system  of  levers  so  that  the  axes  of  glass 
and  gun  are  always  kept  parallel.  With  his  eye  at  the 
telescope  and  his  hand  upon  the  levers  which  control 
all  the  apparatus  below,  this  officer  needs  but  to  bring 
the  cross  hairs  on  the  object-glass  of  the  telescope  to 
cover  the  target,  when,  by  a  slight  pressure  of  an 
electric  button,  he  can  hurl  a  5oo-pound  shell  from  the 
muzzle  of  the  great  cannon  with  the  nicest  precision 
upon  the  distant  mark. 

The  recoil  of  the  gun  is  easily  controlled  by  the 
same  system  of  compressed  air.  Beside  it  are  two 
pneumatic  cylinders,  within  which  act  pistons  at- 
tached to  the  gun,  and  held  in  position  by  an  air- 
pressure  of  about  five  hundred  pounds  to  the  square 
inch.  As  the  piston  is  driven  back  into  the  cylin- 
der by  the  recoil  of  the  gun,  the  air,  compressed 
into  a  smaller  space,  rapidly  increases  in  pressure. 
Too  great  pressure  is  prevented  by  an  arrangement 
for  letting  a  portion  of  the  air  escape  through  the 
piston  to  the  opposite  side,  while  sufficient  pressure 
remains  at  the  end  of  the  recoil  to  force  the  gun  back 
to  its  place.  The  elasticity  of  the  air  prevents  all 
shock,  it  forming  an  easy  cushion  both  for  the  recoil 
and  the  return  movement  of  the  gun. 

These  are  not  the  only  services  performed  by  the 
useful  air  engines.  That  alluded  to  of  lifting  the  am- 
munition and  loading  the  gun  is  of  sufficient  interest 
and  importance  to  be  described.  Immediately  below 
the  tunnel  lies  a  room  of  great  importance  in  the 
economy  of  the  ship,  the  handling  room,  in  which 
during  an  engagement  a  crew  is  kept  actively  engaged 
in  supplying  food  for  the  rapacious  engines  of  de- 
struction above.  Adjoining  this  room,  and  opening 


168  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

into  it  by  water-tight  doors,  are  the  magazine  and 
shell-rooms,  the  doors  of  which  are  usually  kept 
tightly  closed. 

In  the  centre  of  the  landing-room  is  a  pneumatic 
loading  machine,  which  rotates  upon  a  vertical  shaft 
and  can  be  swung  to  right  or  left  for  the  reception  of 
the  load.  This  consists  of  the  5oo-pound  shell  and 
the  cartridge,  the  latter  being  made  up  in  two  sec- 
tions. These  are  brought  from  their  respective  rooms 
on  an  overhead  trolley,  placed  successively  in  the 
loading  machine,  and  transferred  from  this  to  the 
pockets  of  the  loading  car.  There  are  three  of  these 
pockets,  one  for  the  reception  of  each  of  the  three 
portions  of  the  charge.  The  car  is  now  lifted  into 
the  turret,  and  is  brought  to  a  stop  with  the  shell  di- 
rectly opposite  the  open  breech  of  the  gun. 

All  these  movements  are  performed  readily  and 
quickly  by  aid  of  compressed  air,  and  the  same  useful 
servant  completes  the  work,  driving  the  shell  into  the 
gun  by  the  thrust  of  a  pneumatic  rammer,  and  after 
it  the  two  sections  of  the  cartridge,  the  cage  being 
rotated  to  bring  each  of  them  into  position.  The 
breech-plug  is  then  swung  into  place,  thrust  into  the 
open  breech,  and  firmly  locked.  All  these  operations 
are  performed  quickly  and  almost  automatically,  and 
shell  after  shell  can  be  discharged  with  rapidity  from 
each  of  the  two  great  guns. 

The  steering  is  the  final  operation  performed  by  the 
pneumatic  apparatus,  and  may  be  briefly  described. 
The  tiller  by  which  the  rudder  is  moved  restc  between 
two  long  cylinders  whose  pistons  are  connected  by  a 
common  rod,  in  whose  centre  is  a  hollow  cress-head 
in  which  the  tiller  has  free  room  to  slide.  Compressed 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  169 

air  is  admitted  to  one  cylinder  and  exhausted  from 
the  other,  driving  the  pistons  and  the  rod  forward  or 
backward  as  the  helm  is  to  be  shifted  to  port  or  to 
starboard.  When  the  tiller  is  at  rest,  air  lies  behind 
each  piston,  and  forms  a  useful  elastic  cushion  to  take 
up  the  shocks  of  the  tiller  as  it  is  violently  moved  in 
rough  weather,  and  save  the  framework  of  the  ship 
from  the  strain  of  these  shocks. 

The  MIANTONOMOH,  the  fourth  of  the  original 
double-turreted  monitors,  closely  resembles  the  Ter- 
ror in  many  particulars,  being  identical  with  her  in 
dimensions,  tonnage,  and  speed,  but  having  a  some- 
what smaller  motive  power,  the  indicated  horse-power 
of  her  engines  being  1426.  Her  armament  consists 
of  four  lo-inch  breech-loading  rifles  in  the  main  bat- 
tery, and  in  the  secondary  battery  of  two  each  of  6- 
pounder,  3-pounder,  and  I -pounder  rapid-fire  guns. 

The  keel  of  this  boat  was  laid  in  the  ship-yard  of 
John  Roach  &  Sons,  at  Chester,  on  the  Delaware 
River,  in  1874,  but  she  was  not  finished  until  1897, 
at  League  Island  Navy- Yard.  In  many  respects  she 
repeats  the  old  monitor  Miantonomoh,  of  the  Civil 
War  period.  Her  side  armor  is  seven  inches  in  thick- 
ness and  extends  through  a  width  of  six  feet.  The 
deck  armor,  of  if -inch  steel,  is  divided  into  two  plates, 
placed  one  above  the  other,  the  whole  being  planked 
over  with  four  inches  of  pine  flooring.  The  turrets, 
which  are  twenty-four  feet  in  external  diameter,  and 
rise  somewhat  more  than  six  feet  above  the  deck,  are 
plated  with  nj-inch  compound  armor  (iron  and  steel), 
behind  which  are  ten  inches  of  wood  backing,  and 
internally  two  thicknesses  of  steel  plate,  each  one-half 
inch  thick.  The  conning-tower  surmounting  the 


170  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

turret  is  nearly  eight  feet  in  diameter  and  two  feet 
in  height,  and  is  armored  with  Q-inch  steel. 

In  describing  the  turret,  a  source  of  peril  to  the 
crew  needs  to  be  mentioned.  The  striking  of  the 
turret  by  a  ball  from  a  hostile  ship  is  apt  to  cause  the 
heads  of  the  rivets  to  fly  off  and  be  hurled  forcibly 
across  the  confined  space.  In  order  to  prevent  the 
firing  crew  from  being  bombarded  with  missiles  of 
this  kind,  the  turret  is  lined  by  an  inner  shield  of  f- 
inch  steel  plate,  which  stands  eight  inches  within  the 
walls. 

In  the  Miantonomoh  hydraulic  power  is  used,  in- 
stead of  the  pneumatic  system  of  the  Terror.  The 
processes  of  loading  are  similar  to  those  already  de- 
scribed, while  the  recoil  of  the  gun  is  taken  up  by  an 
hydraulic  cylinder,  in  which  the  water  escapes  from 
behind  the  piston  in  limited  quantity,  so  as  to  bring 
the  gun  to  rest  without  serious  shock.  After  firing, 
the  turret  is  rotated  by  the  conning  officer,  so  as  to 
present  a  solid  front  to  the  fire  of  a  hostile  ship  while 
the  guns  are  being  reloaded.  This  operation  per- 
formed, a  touch  brings  them  back  to  the  firing  posi- 
tion. The  turret  turns  on  steel  rollers,  iwenty  in  num- 
ber, linked  together  in  a  circle,  while  above  them  a 
double  line  of  teeth  encircles  its  base,  in  which  the 
cogs  of  the  wheels  of  the  turning  engine  engage.  A 
diaphragm  of  leather  around  the  turret  prevents  the 
entrance  of  water. 

The  PURITAN,  like  the  monitor  just  described,  was 
begun  in  1874  in  the  Roach  ship-yard  at  Chester,  and 
was  finished  in  1896  at  the  Brooklyn  Navy- Yard.  This 
vessel  is  considerably  larger  than  those  named,  being 
two  hundred  and  eighty-nine  feet  six  inches  long, 


f-.- 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  171 

slightly  over  sixty  feet  wide,  and  eighteen  feet  in  mean 
draught,  with  a  displacement  of  6060  tons.  She  has 
an  indicated  horse-power  of  3700  and  a  speed  of  12.4 
knots  per  hour.  Like  the  Monadnock,  she  is  fitted 
with  a  twin-screw,  horizontal,  triple-expansion  engine, 
and  can  carry  a  coal-supply  of  four  hundred  tons. 

The  belt  of  armor  of  this  ship  tapers  from  fourteen 
inches  amidships  to  ten  inches  at  the  bow  and  six 
•  inches  at  the  stern.  Her  turrets  are  barbetted,  the 
barbettes  being  plated  with  fourteen  inches  of  steel 
armor  and  the  turrets  with  eight  inches.  Her  pro- 
tective deck  is  plated  with  two  inches  of  steel  armor. 
Her  main  armament  surpasses  that  of  any  of  her 
fellow-vessels,  being  composed  of  four  1 2-inch  breech- 
loading  rifles,  and  six  4-inch  rapid-fire  guns.  Her 
secondary  armament  includes  six  6-pounder  and  two 
i -pounder  rapid-fire  guns  and  two  Hotchkiss  revolving 
cannon. 

The  MONTEREY,  the  last  monitor  built  by  the  United 
States  government,  was  of  later  construction  than 
those  above  named,  being  ordered  in  1887,  at  the  time 
it  was  decided  to  complete  those  already  on  the  stocks. 
The  keel  of  this  vessel  was  laid  in  1889  at  the  Union 
Iron- Works,  San  Francisco,  and  it  was  put  in  com- 
mission February  13,  1893.  Its  late  date  of  building 
enabled  it  to  be  constructed  with  all  the  recent  im- 
provements in  naval  architecture,  and  as  a  coast-de- 
fence vessel  it  is  among  the  most  powerful  of  the  new 
navy. 

The  Monterey  differs  little  in  dimensions  from  those 
described,  it  being  two  hundred  and  fifty-six  feet  in 
length,  fifty-nine  feet  in  breadth,  and  fourteen  feet  ten 
inches  in  draught,  with  a  tonnage  displacement  of  4084. 


172  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

In  engine-power  and  speed,  however,  it  surpasses  them 
all,  it  being  moved  by  twin-screw,  vertical,  triple-ex- 
pansion engines  of  5244  horse-power,  while  its  speed 
is  13.6  knots  per  hour.  Its  coal-carrying  capacity  is 
low,  being  but  two  hundred  tons.  This  boat  is  con- 
structed entirely  of  steel,  and  is  much  more  heavily 
armored  than  the  other  monitors,  with  the  exception 
of  the  Puritan,  the  armor  belt  being  composed  of  thir- 
teen inches  of  steel  amidships,  which  tapers  to  eight 
inches  at  the  bow  and  six  inches  at  the  stern.  To  the 
protection  afforded  by  this  is  added  that  of  a  double 
bottom  and  water-tight  bulkheads,  there  being  no  less 
than  one  hundred  and  ten  separate  compartments 
within  the  vessel,  each  secure  against  the  inflow  of 
water. 

Low  barbettes  protect  the  turning-gear  and  other 
apparatus  of  the  two  turrets,  the  forward  barbette 
being  protected  by  thirteen  inches,  the  aft  by  eleven 
and  one-half  inches  of  steel  armor.  The  turrets  rising 
from  these  are  armored,  the  forward  with  eight  inches, 
the  aft  with  seven  and  one-half  inches  of  steel.  The 
Monterey  was  built  with  the  idea  of  doing  her  principal 
fighting  head  on,  and  is  more  strongly  protected  in 
front  accordingly.  The  turrets  are  armed  in  view  of 
the  same  contingency,  the  forward  one  carrying  two 
12-inch,  and  the  rear  one  two  lo-inch  breech-loading 
rifled  cannon.  Her  secondary  battery  is  composed  of 
six  6-pounder  and  four  I -pounder  rapid-fire  and  two 
Catling  guns,  part  of  this  secondary  armament  being 
carried  on  the  deck  of  the  superstructure  between  the 
turrets  and  part  on  the  fighting-top  of  the  military 
mast. 

The  other  monitors  named  are  fitted  with  horizontal 


THE  NATION'S   NAVY.  173 

qr  inclined  engines,  the  limited  space  provided  for 
them  demanding  great  economy  of  area  in  placing 
these  complicated  pieces  of  machinery.  The  powerful 
engines  of  the  Monterey,  however,  are  vertical,  their 
three  cylinders  being  respectively  of  twenty-seven, 
forty-one,  and  sixty-four  inches  diameter  and  thirty 
inches  stroke.  They  are  supported  by  cast-steel  in- 
verted Y  frames  securely  bolted  to  cast-steel  bed- 
plates, and,  in  common  with  the  other  machinery,  have 
been  made  as  light  as  possible.  To  attain  this  end 
coil  boilers  are  used  for  the  greater  part  of  the  power. 
There  are  two  cylindrical  boilers  capable  of  propelling 
the  vessel  at  ten  knots  speed,  and  which  are  used  for 
ordinary  purposes,  the  coil  boilers  being  reserved  for 
emergency  cases,  and  enabling  sufficient  steam  to  be 
made  in  less  than  half  an  hour  to  give  the  vessel  her 
maximum  speed. 

The  Civil  War  monitors  were  suited  to  coast  de- 
fence only,  the  fate  of  the  first  vessel  of  this  type  show- 
ing their  lack  of  sea-going  powers.  This  is  not  fully 
the  case  with  the  double-turreted  monitors  described, 
which,  but  for  their  low  freeboard,  bear  a  general  out- 
ward resemblance  to  the  battle-ships,  their  central 
superstructure  and  military  mast  giving  them  a  more 
formidable  appearance  than  the  low-lying  craft  of 
Ericsson's  original  design.  Some  of  these,  while  still 
best  adapted  for  harbor  defence  and  coast  duties,  are 
at  present  on  the  open  seas  with  the  war-fleets,  and 
the  Monterey  has  been  sent  across  the  broad  stretch 
of  the  Pacific  to  take  part  in  the  defence  of  Manila 
Bay. 

The  monitor  design,  as  worked  out  by  Ericsson, 
has  many  points  of  superiority  to  the  low  freeboard 


174  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

turret-ships  of  the  British  navy  built  after  the  design 
of  Captain  Coles.  The  latter  rise  higher  out  of  the 
water  and  their  turrets  are  sunk  in  great  part  below 
the  deck,  while  in  the  former  the  turrets  stand  to  their 
full  height  above  the  upper  deck.  An  important  fea- 
ture of  superiority  in  the  American  monitor  is  its  com- 
plete system  of  artificial  ventilation,  which  permits  all 
the  orifices  of  the  deck  to  be  hermetically  sealed  ex- 
cept those  that  admit  the  air.  These  are  high  shot- 
proof  trunks,  which  exclude  the  water  while  admitting 
the  air. 

This  system  of  ventilation  has  the  advantage  over 
that  depending  on  open  hatches  or  gratings  that  it 
permits  the  sides  of  the  vessel  to  be  made  very  low, 
and  therefore  renders  a  greater  thickness  of  armor 
admissible.  The  larger  part  of  the  extra  weight,  how- 
ever, is  usually  expended  upon  the  turret  and  guns, 
the  low  sides  presenting  a  mark  difficult  to  hit,  while 
their  overhanging  construction  protects  the  lower  hull. 

Ventilation  is  provided  for  by  fans,  which  suck 
the  air  in  through  the  shot-proof  trunks  or  tubes, 
made  inaccessible  to  spray  or  rain.  After  traversing 
every  part  of  the  ship,  the  air  is  discharged  into  the 
furnaces,  and  finally  escapes  by  the  chimney,  the  lower 
portion  of  which  is  made  sHot-proof.  The  cabins  are 
lighted  from  the  deck  by  bull's-eyes,  shutters  being 
provided  to  cover  these  lights  when  the  vessel  is  in 
action,  in  which  event  artificial  light  is  used.  Of 
course,  the  close  confinement  of  the  crew  of  a  monitor 
is  restricted  to  times  of  action  or  storm,  they  being 
able  to  use  the  deck  under  ordinary  circumstances. 

Belief  in  the  utility  of  monitors  for  certain  exi- 
gencies of  warfare  seems  indicated  by  the  fact  that 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  175 

the  thirteen  monitors  remaining  from  the  Civil  War, 
and  which  for  many  years  had  lain  useless  and  de- 
caying in  the  waters  of  League  Island,  were  rapidly 
repaired  and  brought  into  service  again  in  the  war 
times  of  1898,  being  stationed  for  coast  defence  at 
various  exposed  points  along  the  coast.  The  decay 
had  been  superficial  only;  their  engines  and  other 
important  parts  had  been  kept  in  order,  and  little 
change  was  necessary  to  bring  these  veterans  of  1862 
again  into  working  order. 

In  the  Naval  Appropriation  Bill  of  1898  four  other 
single-turreted  monitors,  of  small  size  and  eleven  feet 
draught,  were  provided  for.  These  are  to  sit  low  in 
the  water,  having  a  2O-inch  freeboard,  while  their  light 
draught  will  enable  them  to  navigate  shallow  waters 
and  avoid  more  powerful  antagonists.  Their  speed 
will  be  the  same  as  that  of  the  Puritan,  and  while  they 
will  have  only  half  as  many  large  guns,  their  secondary 
batteries  will  be  fully  up  to  date  and  make  them  nearly 
as  powerful  as  the  Terror  and  the  others  of  her  class. 
Unlike  the  original  monitors,  these  will  have  a  super- 
structure deck  and  a  military  mast,  on  which  will  be 
placed  several  4-inch  rapid-fire  guns  and  a  numerous 
battery  of  6-  and  I -pounders  and  machine-guns,  while 
the  turrets  will  carry  two  of  the  latest  pattern  lo-inch 
breech-loading  rifled  guns. 


176  THE  NATION'S   NAVY. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

BATTLE-SHIPS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

IN  old-time  naval  warfare  we  read  much  of  two 
classes  of  war-vessels,  the  heavy  and  somewhat  slow 
two-  or  three-decker  line-of-battle  ship  and  the  single- 
decked  and  swift  frigate  that  acted  as  an  ocean  scout 
for  the  more  dignified  squadron  which  would  bear  the 
brunt  of  battle.  The  place  of  these  two  is  taken  to- 
day by  the  battle-ship  and  the  cruiser,  the  former 
slower  and  more  cumbrous,  yet  far  more  powerful, 
the  latter  able  to  scour  the  seas,  ready  to  fight  with 
one  of  her  own  kind,  yet  free  to  fly  without  disgrace 
from  the  great  guns  of  the  heavier  ship,  whose  armor 
she  cannot  hope  to  pierce  or  whose  mighty  projectiles 
to  endure.  Up  to  1898  the  annals  of  war  contain  but 
one  record  of  a  contest  between  cruisers  and  battle- 
ships, the  battle  of  the  Yalu,  between  the  Japanese  and 
Chinese  fleets.  Here  a  squadron  of  swift  Japanese 
cruisers  for  several  hours  circled  round  two  somewhat 
antiquated  battle-ships,  the  Ting  Yuen  and  Chen 
Yuen  of  the  Chinese  fleet,  pouring  in  a  hail  of  fire 
from  their  rapid-fire  guns,  varied  with  an  occasional 
shell  from  their  great  66-ton  cannon,  yet  the  battle- 
ships came  out  of  the  fight  little  the  worse  for  the  bat- 
tering they  had  received,  though  it  was  sufficient  to 
have  sent  to  the  bottom  a  fleet  of  ordinary  cruisers. 
Had  these  two  ships  been  better  manned  the  result  of 
that  first  battle  between  modern  ships  might  have 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  177 

been  very  different.  As  it  was,  it  proved  conclusively 
the  great  resisting  power  of  the  modern  battle-ship. 

A  modern  battle-ship  is  singularly  unlike  the  great 
liner  of  the  past,  and  a  far  more  cumbrous  and  intri- 
cate piece  of  floating  machinery.  The  former  could 
be  manned  by  ordinary  seamen;  the  latter  is  like  a 
great  workshop  filled  with  skilled  mechanics.  A  re- 
cent writer  has  compared  the  battle-ship  to  a  mon- 
strous honey-comb,  made  up  of  multitudinous  separate 
cells  or  compartments,  and  supplied  with  machinery 
every  piece  of  which  needs  skill  and  intelligence  for 
its  proper  handling.  The  engines,  the  guns  and  tur- 
rets, the  lifting  and  loading  apparatus,  the  range- 
finder,  and  the  various  other  mechanisms  can  be  man- 
aged only  by  men  of  long  experience,  and  in  the 
manning  of  such  a  vessel  the  sailor  gives  way  to  the 
artisan.  There  is  no  pulling  of  ropes  or  spreading  of 
sails  to  the  breeze,  no  clambering  aloft  on  swaying 
shrouds  or  reefing  canvas  in  the  face  of  a  gale,  no 
dancing  on  a  yard-arm  to  the  whistling  of  the  wind; 
but  far  below  a  throng  of  sooty  coal-heavers  is  kept 
busy  hurling  fuel  into  flaming  furnaces,  while  sweat- 
ing engineers  watch  the  steam-gauge  with  careful 
eyes,  and  out  of  sight  in  the  rear  a  swift  revolving 
screw  takes  the  place  of  the  discarded  sail  in  driving 
the  ship  through  the  ocean  waves. 

A  like  radical  change  has  come  over  the  armament 
of  the  ship  of  war.  Instead  of  long  rows  of  frowning 
port-holes,  in  several  successive  ranks,  with  black 
muzzles  protruding  and  flames  belching  from  the 
whole  side  of  the  ship  in  times  of  battle,  we  see  now  a 
brace  or  two  of  mighty  guns  looking  grimly  out  from 
the  sides  of  revolving  turrets,  with  smaller  ones  peer- 

12 


178  THE  NATION'S   NAVY. 

ing  through  casements  or  from  behind  shields  of 
steel,  some  of  them  from  far  up  the  mast,  whose 
modern  mission  seems  to  be  to  bear  guns  instead  of 
sails. 

In  short,  an  extraordinary  metamorphosis  has  taken 
place,  the  ship  of  the  present  is  an  utterly  different 
piece  of  mechanism  from  that  of  the  past,  and  the 
captain  of  a  Roman  galley  would  have  gazed  with  less 
surprise  upon  a  past  century  ship  of  the  line  than 
would  Lord  Nelson  upon  the  battle-ship  of  the  present 
day.  What  a  battle-ship  is  and  of  what  parts  it  is 
composed  have  been  already  generally  indicated  in  a 
former  chapter.  It  is  our  purpose  now  to  describe 
specifically  those  of  the  United  States,  mentioning 
them  in  order,  as  they  came  successively  into  being. 

The  smallest  of  our  battle-ships,  and  the  first  to  be 
put  in  commission,  is  the  Texas,  whose  building  was 
authorized  August  3,  1886,  and  her  keel  laid  June  I, 
1889.  She  was  launched  June  28,  1892,  but  was  not 
commissioned  until  three  years  later,  August  15,  1895. 
The  first  efforts  towards  the  building  of  a  new  navy 
in  this  country  had  been  confined  to  monitors  and 
small  cruisers,  and  when  at  length  a  battle-ship  was 
ordered,  it  was  of  far  smaller  dimensions  than  many 
of  those  then  existing  abroad.  The  Navy  Department 
was  slowly  feeling  its  way  to  bolder  ideas. 

The  TEXAS  was  built  at  the  United  States  Navy- 
Yard,  Norfolk,  Virginia,  on  plans  originally  furnished 
by  English  designers,  but  much  altered  during  the 
progress  of  construction.  Her  displacement  is  6315 
tons,  and  she  is  driven  by  two  sets  of  triple-expansion 
engines,  capable  of  developing  5800  horse-power  with 
natural  draught,  which  with  forced  draught  can  be 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  179 

increased  to  8610  horse-power.  She  is  fitted  with 
twin-screw  propellers.  The  length  of  this  vessel  on 
the  water-line  is  three  hundred  and  one  feet  four 
inches,  her  breadth  sixty-four  feet  one  inch,  and  her 
mean  draught  twenty-two  feet  six  inches.  She  is 
capable  of  carrying  eight  hundred  and  fifty  tons  of 
coal,  and  attained  a  trial-trip  speed  of  17.8  knots  per 
hour. 

The  Texas  is  armored  with  twelve  inches  of  steel 
plate  through  one  hundred  and  sixteen  feet  of  her 
length,  the  belt  of  armor  extending  two  feet  above  the 
water-line  and  four  and  a  half  below  it.  She  possesses 
a  protective  deck  of  2-inch  steel,  and  carries  two 
turrets  plated  with  1 2-inch  steel.  Like  all  the  later 
battle-ships,  she  is  built  on  the  cellular  plan,  a  double 
bottom  extending  below  her  engines,  boilers,  and 
magazines,  and  being  divided  into  numerous  compart- 
ments. In  all,  the  ship  has  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
nine  of  these  compartments,  connected  to  steam-  and 
hand-pumps  by  a  drainage  system  embracing  the 
whole  vessel.  She  is  lighted  throughout  by  electricity. 

The  main  battery  of  the  Texas  consists  of  two  12- 
inch  breech-loading  rifles,  each  weighing  forty-six  and 
a  half  tons,  mounted  in  two  turrets,  one  on  either  side 
of  the  forward  deck;  and  six  6-inch  breech-loaders, 
protected  by  steel  screens.  Her  secondary  battery  em- 
braces seven  6-pounder  and  eight  I -pounder  rapid-fire 
guns,  with  four  37-millimetre  Hotchkiss  revolving  can- 
non and  two  Catlings.  Those  are  partly  mounted  on 
the  gun-deck,  behind  a  I  J-inch  steel  plating,  partly  on 
the  bridge  and  the  military  tops  of  the  masts.  In  ad- 
dition she  possesses,  in  common  with  all  the  other 
battle-ships,  an  armament  of  torpedo-tubes,  two  in 


180  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

number.  The  arrangement  and  use  of  these  tubes  will 
be  described  in  connection  with  some  of  the  later 
ships. 

Next  on  our  naval  list  comes  a  ship  of  whose  dis- 
astrous history  we  have  already  spoken,  the  ill-fated 
Maine.  This  famous  vessel  was  built  to  occupy  a 
position  at  that  time  not  represented  in  our  navy,  that 
of  the  armored  cruiser,  but  after  completion  was 
ranked  by  the  department  as  a  second-class  battle- 
ship. As  such,  therefore,  we  must  here  consider  it. 

The  MAINE  was  authorized  at  the  same  date  as  the 
Texas,  August  3,  1886,  was  launched  November  18, 
1890,  and  put  in  commission  September  17,  1895. 
Her  limit  of  cost,  like  that  of  the  Texas,  was  fixed  at 
$2,500,000.  She  was  built  by  the  government  at  the 
Brooklyn  Navy- Yard,  her  keel  being  laid  October  17, 
1888.  The  Maine  was  a  twin-screw  steel  vessel,  with 
a  length  on  load-line  of  three  hundred  and  eighteen 
feet  and  a  breadth  of  fifty-seven  feet,  her  mean  draught 
being  twenty-one  feet  six  inches,  and  displacement 
6682  tons,  somewhat  less  than  that  of  the  Texas.  Her 
engines  were  of  the  vertical,  triple-expansion  type, 
their  maximum  development  of  horse-power  being 
9293  and  her  record  of  speed  17.45  knots.  Her  coal- 
carrying  capacity  was  sufficient  for  a  journey  of  seven 
thousand  knots. 

The  rig  of  the  Maine,  like  that  of  the  Texas,  com- 
prised two  military  masts.  She  was  protected  for  a 
length  of  one  hundred  and  eighty  feet  by  side  armor 
of  12-inch  steel.  Her  turrets  differed  in  position  from 
those  of  the  Texas,  standing  diagonally  amidships, 
and  were  plated  with  8-inch  steel,  the  barbettes  from 
which  they  rose  being  protected  by  1 2-inch  steel 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  181 

armor.  The  deck  plating  was  two  inches  in  thickness, 
increasing  to  four  inches  on  its  sloping  sides.  The 
bow  was  sheered  into  a  formidable  ram.  She  was  the 
first  of  our  ships  to  be  provided  with  cocoa-fibre  for 
protection  against  water,  having  a  lining  of  this  ma- 
terial covering  four  thousand  seven  hundred  and 
thirty-seven  cubic  feet. 

The  turrets  were  placed,  one  forward  on  the  star- 
board beam,  the  other  aft  on  the  port  beam.  In  order 
to  afford  the  fullest  effect  to  her  guns  under  this  ar- 
rangement, the  intervening  or  superstructure  deck 
was  cut  away  so  as  to  give  full  play  to  the  four  great 
guns,  allowing  their  fire  to  be  concentrated  ahead  or 
astern,  or  on  either  beam,  at  will. 

The  turrets  of  the  Maine  carried  each  two  lo-inch 
breech-loading  rifles,  her  main  battery  also  including 
six  6-inch  rapid-fire  rifles  protected  by  shields  of  2- 
inch  steel,  and  so  arranged  that  three  of  them  could 
be  trained  at  once  on  any  given  spot.  In  addition  she 
carried  seven  6-pounder  and  eight  I -pounder  rapid- 
fire  guns,  four  Catlings,  and  four  Whitehead  torpedo- 
tubes.  Her  high  speed  and  ready  handling,  in  con- 
nection with  her  complement  of  four  guns  of  large 
caliber,  whose  fire  could  be  concentrated  on  any  spot, 
made  the  Maine  a  very  effective  ship,  and  her  destruc- 
tion was  a  serious  loss  to  our  navy. 

Unfortunately,  she  was  assailed  at  the  weak  point 
of  all  modern  war-ships,  her  unprotected  bottom,  and 
with  an  explosive  of  such  immense  force  that  her  sys- 
tem of  compartments  proved  useless  for  protection, 
the  vessel  being  virtually  broken  in  two  and  her  bot- 
tom forced  upward  until  portions  of  it  stood  above  the 
normal  position  of  the  deck.  In  all  the  history  of  tor- 


182  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

pedo  warfare  there  is  no  other  instance  of  such  com- 
plete  destruction  as  that  shown  in  the  case  of  the 
Maine.  What  part  torpedoes  may  play  in  future  wars 
remains  to  be  shown;  large  provision  has  been  made 
for  their  use,  but  equally  large  provision  for  defence 
against  them,  and  it  is  an  open  question  what  will  be 
the  final  result  of  the  employment  of  this  new  and 
threatening  arm.  As  for  their  terribly  destructive 
powers,  when  employed  from  without,  the  Maine 
bears  witness,  and  every  modern  battle-ship  is  in  daily 
danger  of  being  blown  into  fragments  from  the  peril- 
ous explosives  which  she  carries  within  her  hold. 

It  was  not  until  1890  that  the  United  States  fully 
accepted  the  situation,  and  prepared  to  build  battle- 
ships that  would  compare  with  the  best  of  those  in  ex- 
istence. On  June  30  of  that  year  an  act  of  Congress 
was  passed  authorizing  the  construction  of  three  first- 
class  ships  of  this  character.  The  completion  of  these, 
technically  known  as  coast-defence  battle-ships,  yet 
fully  competent  to  venture  upon  the  open  seas,  first 
put  this  country  on  a  level  with  foreign  nations  in  the 
matter  of  naval  construction,  and  in  some  respects  in 
the  lead.  These  vessels  (the  Indiana,  Massachusetts, 
and  Oregon),  with  their  10,288  tons  of  displacement, 
did  not,  it  is  true,  equal  in  size  the  greatest  ships  of  the 
British  navy,  such  as  the  Royal  Sovereign,  of  14,150 
tons,  and  the  Prince  George,  of  14,900;  but  any  su- 
periority in  size  was  offset  by  the  greater  weight  and 
more  effective  disposition  of  the  armament  of  the 
American  ships,  and  in  warfare  the  latter  would  cer- 
tainly prove  well  able  to  hold  their  own  with  any  ships 
in  the  navies  of  the  world. 

The  three  vessels  named  are  sister  ships,  and  a  de- 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  183 

scription  of  one  will  in  a  measure  serve  for  all,  though 
they  differ  in  minor  particulars.  They  are  of  equal 
dimensions,  being  three  hundred  and  forty-eight  feet 
long,  sixty-nine  feet  three  inches  wide,  and  having 
a  mean  draught  of  twenty-four  feet,  their  maximum 
draught  when  fully  loaded  with  coal  being  twenty- 
seven  feet.  Their  tonnage  displacement  is  10,288, 
and  normal  coal  supply  four  hundred  tons,  though 
they  have  a  bunker  capacity  for  nearly  sixteen  hun- 
dred tons.  They  are  fitted  with  twin-screw,  vertical, 
triple-expansion  engines,  and  resemble  each  other  in 
armor  and  armament,  though  differing  somewhat  in 
speed.  We  shall  therefore  speak  particularly  of  the 
Oregon,  in  view  of  the  fact  that,  while  classed  as  a 
defender  of  our  coast  cities  and  maritime  border,  this 
vessel  has  effectually  proved  her  sea-going  powers 
by  steaming  from  San  Francisco  to  the  North  Atlantic 
coast,  a  distance  of  some  thirteen  thousand  miles. 

The  OREGON,  built  at  the  Union  Iron- Works,  San 
Francisco,  had  her  keel  laid  November  19,  1891,  was 
launched  exactly  two  years  afterwards,  and  was  com- 
missioned July  15,  1896,  having  shown  a  speed  on  her 
trial  trip  of  16.79  knots.  She,  in  common  with  her 
sister  ships,  the  Indiana  and  the  Massachusetts,  carries 
a  side  armor  of  Harveyized  steel,  eighteen  inches 
thick  in  its  upper  half  and  bevelled  below  down  to 
eight  inches  at  the  bottom.  It  has  a  width  of  seven 
feet  two  inches,  resting  on  the  double  skin  of  the  lower 
hull,  and  rising  three  feet  above  the  water-line.  This 
armor-belt  extends  two-thirds  the  length  of  the  ship, 
and  is  joined  at  its  ends  by  bulkheads  or  transverse 
walls  of  14-inch  steel,  the  whole  forming  a  practically 
impregnable  central  citadel  for  the  protection  of  the 


184  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

vital  parts  of  the  ship, — the  engines,  boilers,  and 
magazines.  The  top  of  this  great  steel  box  is  covered 
by  a  roof  of  2f-inch  steel,  the  whole  enclosure  being 
impervious  to  any  projectile  likely  to  be  hurled  against 
it.  Forward  and  aft  of  the  citadel  the  steel  deck  ex- 
tends, of  the  same  thickness,  in  a  gradual  curve  to  the 
bow  and  stern. 

This  roof  of  steel  is  known  as  the  berth-deck. 
Above  it  and  the  citadel  the  sides  of  the  ship  rise  about 
eight  feet,  at  which  height  extends  the  main  deck. 
The  sides  of  the  ship  above  the  1 8-inch  belt  are  pro- 
tected by  a  belt  of  4-inch  steel,  back  of  which,  in  the 
bunkers,  lie  some  ten  feet  of  coal,  the  whole  being 
sufficient  to  keep  out  rapid-fire  shells,  or  even  the 
shells  from  the  great  guns  if  of  long  range  or  if  they 
strike  it  in  an  oblique  direction.  Fore  and  aft  of  the 
citadel  this  upper  section  of  the  ship  has  no  armor 
except  that  of  the  berth-deck,  she  being  quite  able  to 
swim  and  perform  her  evolutions  if  all  this  part  were 
shot  away.  The  hull  thus  denuded  would  still  possess 
the  floating  power  of  a  double-turreted  monitor. 

Looking  aft  from  the  bow  of  the  vessel,  or  forward 
•from  the  stern,  one  would  see  its  main  agents  of  de- 
struction, the  threatening  mouths  of  two  great  can- 
non, with  yawning  openings  of  thirteen  inches  in 
width,  their  smooth  black  length  showing  for  twenty- 
three  feet  beyond  the  walls  of  the  turret  with  which 
they  revolve,  and  in  which  the  loading  and  firing  ap- 
paratus is  concealed.  The  turret  consists  of  a  solid 
wall  of  steel,  circular  in  shape  and  fifteen  inches  in 
thickness,  its  lower  edge  being  surrounded  by  the  top 
edge  of  another  circular  steel  wall  seventeen  inches 
thick,  known  as  the  barbette.  This  descends  to  the 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  185 

level  of  the  1 8-inch  armor.-belt  below.  There  thus  ex- 
tends a  wall  of  steel  from  fifteen  to  eighteen  inches 
thick  from  the  top  of  the  turret  to  a  depth  of  four  and 
a  half  feet  below  the  water-line  of  the  ship,  completely 
protecting  from  any  ordinary  attack  the  crew  of  the 
guns,  the  loading  apparatus,  the  powder  and  shell, 
and  all  the  important  mechanisms  within.  The  cir- 
cular track  upon  which  the  turret  revolves  stands  just 
below  the  top  of  the  barbette  wall,  and  at  once  enables 
the  gunners  to  direct  their  pieces  towards  any  point 
in  the  horizon,  or  to  turn  them  away,  when  loading, 
from  the  line  of  an  enemy's  fire,  so  as  to  prevent  mis- 
siles from  entering  the  port-holes  through  which  the 
great  guns  protrude.  The  gun  turrets  are  somewhat 
difficult  objects  to  hit  in  the  excitement  of  action.  In 
the  battle  of  the  Yalu  not  a  fourth  of  the  shells  hurled 
at  the  Chinese  battle-ships  hit  their  mark.  And  of 
those  that  reach  the  turret,  the  great  majority  are  apt 
to  glance  harmlessly  away  from  its  rounded  sides.  In 
short,  hardly  one  shot  in  thirty  that  strike  is  likely  to 
make  a  direct  hit  and  pierce  this  solid  mass  of  steel. 
On  the  turret's  top,  just  lifting  above  its  level,  and 
practically  safe  from  harm,  stands  the  sighting-hood, 
through  whose  two  horizontal  and  two  vertical  slots 
the  captain  of  the  gun-crew  can  watch  the  enemy 
and  direct  the  movement  of  the  guns,  or  can  himself, 
by  the  aid  of  convenient  levers,  train  and  fire  them. 

The  forward  and  aft  turrets  are  not  the  only  ones 
possessed  by  the  Oregon.  In  fact,  this  and  its  sister 
ships  are  abundantly  provided  with  this  important  ad- 
junct, they  having  four  other  turrets  of  smaller  size. 
These  stand  between  the  main  turrets,  ranged  in  pairs, 
two  on  each  side  of  the  ship.  From  the  port-holes  of 


186  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

each  of  these  protrude  two  8-inch  rifled  guns,  pro- 
tected by  the  6-inch  steel  armor  of  the  turret  walls  and 
the  8-inch  armor  of  the  barbettes  below. 

The  8-inch  guns  are  lifted  to  a  height  of  twenty-six 
feet  above  the  water-line,  this  enabling  them  to  fire 
over  the  tops  of  the  main  turrets,  so  that  they  may  be 
aimed  dead  forward  or  aft,  while  their  height  permits 
them  to  be  worked  with  effect  in  any  weather.  In 
addition  to  the  guns  named  there  are  four  others,  of 
6-inch  aperture,  which  stand  upon  the  main  deck  near 
the  smaller  turrets,  under  the  protection  of  shields  of 
6-inch  steel.  These  are  so  placed  that  they  all  can 
deliver  broadside  fire,  while  one  pair  can  fire  direct 
ahead  and  the  other  direct  astern.  These  formidable 
floating  ports,  therefore,  have  in  all  a  main  battery  of 
four  13-inch,  eight  8-inch,  and  four  6-inch  breech- 
loading  rifled  cannon,  half  of  which  can  fire  together 
dead  ahead  and  half  dead  astern,  while  all  the  1 3-inch 
guns  and  half  the  others  can  deliver  together  a  broad- 
side fire. 

This  is  not  their  complete  armament.  There  is  a 
powerful  secondary  battery,  consisting  of  twenty 
6-pounder  and  six  i-pounder  rapid-fire  guns  and  four 
Catlings,  variously  placed  for  effective  work  on  the 
superstructure  and  the  military  mast.  The  ship  car- 
ries in  addition  two  field-guns,  intended  for  the  use 
of  landing  parties,  and  three  Whitehead  torpedo-tubes, 
situated  in  the  lower  region  below  deck. 

The  conning-tower,  which  is  plated  with  eight 
inches  of  steel,  stands  back  of  the  forward  main  turret, 
and  forms  the  base  of  the  military  mast.  Its  elevation 
is  such  as  to  give  a  clear  view  through  its  series  of 
narrow  slits  around  the  whole  circle  of  the  horizon, 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  187 

and  enables  the  commander  to  perceive  at  any  point 
the  position  of  hostile  ships  or  batteries.  He  has  a 
ready  command  of  an  elaborate  system  of  telephones, 
speaking-tubes,  and  electric  calls,  enabling  him  to 
communicate  with  all  parts  of  the  ship  and  give  his 
orders  to  gunners,  engineers,  helmsmen,  and  others 
without  moving  from  his  station.  He  can,  at  will,  lay 
his  hand  on  any  part  of  the  ship,  from  the  steering- 
room  to  the  turrets,  turn  her  to  right  or  left,  send  her 
fast  or  slow,  aim  her  guns,  and  concentrate  her  mighty 
batteries  upon  any  weak  spot  in  the  enemy's  line. 

Above  the  conning-tower  stands  the  pilot-house, 
from  which  the  ship  is  handled  except  when  battle  is 
actually  going  on.  These  form  the  lower  section  of 
the  military  mast,  on  each  side  of  which,  upon  the  roof 
of  the  pilot-house,  two  search-lights  are  situated,  each 
of  one  hundred  thousand  candle-power.  Just  above 
them  stands  a  small  platform  containing  the  control- 
ling mechanism,  by  whose  means  the  light  may  be 
raised  or  lowered  and  made  to  sweep  with  its  powerful 
beam  the  whole  circle  of  the  horizon.  These  great 
rotary  lights  are  absolutely  essential  to  the  warfare 
of  the  present  day,  as  an  aid  to  discover  the  lurking, 
swift-moving  torpedo-boat,  which  if  permitted  to  creep 
up  unseen  might  in  a  moment  send  the  mightiest 
battle-ship  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea.  When  near  an 
enemy  at  night  these  lights  need  to  be  kept  in  inces- 
sant play,  for  then  death  and  destruction  lurk  silent 
and  hidden  upon  the  waters,  and  only  ceaseless  vigi- 
lance can  guard  against  their  covert  assaults.  The 
torpedo-boat  is  the  one  unceasing  dread  of  the  crew 
of  the  most  massive  of  modern  floating  citadels,  a 
small  but  terrible  foe,  its  approach  insidious,  its  sting 


i88  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

fatal,  its  errand  death.  As  yet,  indeed,  the  torpedo  in 
warfare  has  not  shown  much  effectiveness,  watchful- 
ness having  prevented  its  assaults,  but  it  is  full  of 
frightful  possibilities,  and  vigilance  upon  a  man-of- 
war  is  the  only  assurance  of  safety  from  swift  destruc- 
tion. 

We  may  in  a  few  words  complete  the  story  of  the 
military  mast,  that  essential  feature  of  the  modern 
ship  of  war.  Extending  as  a  circular  tower  of  steel 
above  the  pilot-house,  it  bears  at  various  heights  one 
or  more  platforms,  each  protected  by  a  circular  shield 
of  steel,  and  serving  as  a  fighting-top  for  the  marines. 
They  bear  the  smaller  rapid-fire  and  machine-guns, 
and  from  their  elevated  height  a  rain  of  balls  can  be 
poured  during  an  engagement  upon  the  deck  of  a  foe. 
They  serve  also  as  the  lookout  stations  of  the  ship. 
From  the  base  of  the  military  mast,  and  occupying  the 
space  between  the  main  turrets,  there  rises  above  the 
main  deck  what  is  known  as  the  superstructure  deck, 
upon  which  a  part  of  the  secondary  battery  is  mounted; 
and  also  the  bridge-deck,  upon  which  are  stowed  the 
lifeboats,  gigs,  and  steam-pinnaces.  A  powerful 
steam-crane  stands  on  each  side  of  the  ship,  its  reach 
enabling  it  to  pick  up  a  boat  from  the  water,  lift  it 
to  a  height  of  thirty-five  feet,  and  place  it  in  position 
on  the  bridge-deck. 

Descending  now  to  the  interior  of  the  ship  and  walk- 
ing forward,  we  reach  a  section  of  the  ship  to  which 
allusion  has  already  been  made  and  of  which  fuller 
description  is  needed,  the  bow  torpedo-room.  In 
modern  warfare  the  use  of  the  torpedo  is  not  confined 
to  the  special  torpedo-boat,  but  battle-ships  and 
cruisers  are  provided  with  this  terrible  implement  of 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  189 

warfare,  the  Indiana  having  two  torpedo-tubes,  the 
Oregon  and  the  Massachusetts  three  each.  Our 
journey  forward  will  bring  us  to  one  of  these,  a  long 
cylinder  whose  outer  end  pierces  the  bow  of  the  ship, 
a  cover-plate  closing  its  port-hole,  when  not  in  use, 
against  the  entrance  of  water.  These  tubes  are  in- 
clined slightly  downward,  in  order  that  .the  torpedo 
shall  enter  the  water  shortly  after  leaving  the  gun  and 
progress  under  water  towards  the  unprotected  part 
of  the  hull  of  a  hostile  ship.  In  some  instances  the 
tube  opens  below  the  water  surface,  to  protect  it 
against  the  enemy's  fire.  There  is  difficulty  in  both 
cases.  For  a  torpedo  to  plunge  from  the  air  into 
the  water  causes  a  severe  strain  to  its  delicate  mech- 
anism. But  for  an  elongated  body  to  be  thrust  out 
of  a  hole  into  water  that  may  be  rushing  past  at  a 
rate  of  eighteen  knots  an  hour  is  equally  likely  to 
cause  a  strain.  The  latter  difficulty,  however,  has 
been  overcome,  and  in  some  foreign  ships  the  tor- 
pedoes are  arranged  to  be  discharged  under  water. 

Suspended  from  the  ceiling  of  the  torpedo-room  are 
the  1 8-inch  Whitehead  torpedoes.  Each  of  these 
weighs  eight  hundred  and  thirty-five  pounds,  and  is 
divided  into  three  compartments.  The  first  contains 
the  charge  of  gun-cotton,  which  is  exploded  by  con- 
tact when  the  torpedo  strikes  the  mark;  the  second 
is  charged  with  air  at  a  pressure  of  thirteen  hundred 
pounds  to  the  square  inch ;  the  third  contains  the  little 
compressed-air  engines  by  which  the  miniature  screw 
propellers  which  drive  the  torpedo  through  the  water 
are  operated.  Horizontal  rudders  enable  the  torpedo 
to  move  through  the  water  at  any  desired  depth. 

In  the  case  of  firing,  the  torpedoes  are  picked  up 


190  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

by  a  chain  hoist,  run  along  overhead  tracks,  and  low- 
ered into  the  tube  at  its  open  breech.  This  being 
closed,  the  torpedo  is  driven  out  by  compressed  air 
or  by  a  small  charge  of  powder.  The  act  of  dis- 
charging starts  the  engine  of  the  torpedo,  which  has 
sufficient  power  to  drive  it  forward  in  a  direct  line  for 
four  hundred  yards  at  a  speed  of  thirty  knots,  or  eight 
hundred  yards  at  twenty-seven  knots  an  hour.  The 
tube  mentioned  provides  only  for  the  discharge  of  a 
torpedo  dead  ahead.  There  is  another  tube  in  the 
stern,  and  in  some  ships  one  on  each  side,  the  latter 
being  fitted  to  the  ship  by  a  ball  and  socket  joint,  so 
that  they  can  be  trained  on  an  enemy  through  a  con- 
siderable range.  These  formidable  weapons  are  in- 
capable of  being  utilized  except  at  comparatively  short 
range,  and  their  perilous  possibilities  are  likely  to  keep 
battle-ships  somewhat  far  apart  in  future  engagements. 
Any  approach  within  half  a  mile  might  subject  a  fight- 
ing ship  to  the  danger  of  being  blown  out  of  water 
by  a  hidden  missile  of  this  kind,  and  the  hand  to  hand 
fighting  of  the  past  is  not  likely  to  be  indulged  in  ex- 
cept in  extreme  cases. 

The  MASSACHUSETTS,  as  has  been  said,  is  in  every 
respect  similar  to  the  Oregon.  She  was  built  by 
the  Cramps,  of  Philadelphia,  at  a  contract  cost  of 
$3,020,000.  The  INDIANA  was  built  by  the  same  firm 
and  at  the  same  price,  this  being  slightly  less  than  the 
contract  price  of  the  Oregon,  which  was  $3,180,000. 
All  these  vessels  are  protected  against  the  entrance 
of  water  through  shot-holes  by  a  packing  of  cocoa- 
fibre,  a  substance  also  used  in  the  Iowa,  while  in  all 
the  later  battle-ships  a  packing  made  from  the  pith 
of  the  corn-stalk  is  employed,  experiment  having 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  191 

shown  that  this  is  at  once  more  effective  and  of  lighter 
weight.  While  nearly  sixteen  thousand  cubic  feet  of 
cocoa  packing  is  required  for  these  vessels,  less  than 
eleven  thousand  cubic  feet  of  the  corn-pith  material 
has  been  deemed  sufficient  for  the  Kentucky  and  the 
Kearsarge. 

A  description  has  already  been  given  of  the  mode 
of  handling  and  loading  the  great  guns  of  these  ocean 
monarchs,  but  something  further  in  this  direction  may 
prove  desirable.  In  the  case  of  the  1 3-inch  gruns,  each 
of  which  weighs  sixty-seven  tons,  this  is  a  matter  that 
calls  for  very  accurate  and  Well-devised  mechanism, 
and  labor-saving  arrangements  have  been  carried  to 
perfection,  a  single  man  being  able  to  raise  and  lower 
these  massive  cylinders  of  steel  and  swing  them 
through  an  arc  of  270  degrees.  This  can  be  done 
within  the  sighting  station  by  the  movement  of  a  few 
levers  and  hand-wheels.  The  entire  turret  with  its  two 
great  guns  can  be  as  easily  handled,  its  revolution 
being  effected  by  the  aid  of  hydraulic  engines  situated 
within  the  barbette. 

The  recoil  of  the  guns  is  another  matter  of  high 
importance,  they  being  driven  back,  as  the  projectile 
is  hurled  from  their  muzzles,  with  an  initial  energy 
of  over  thirty-six  thousand  foot-tons.  This,  as  has 
been  already  said,  is  overcome  by  the  aid  of  a  recoil 
cylinder  mounted  within  the  gun-carriage  beneath  the 
gun  and  filled  with  water,  which  takes  up  the  motion 
of  the  gun,  part  of  the  water  being  forced  through  a 
relief  valve  as  the  gun  recedes.  The  gun  is  driven 
back  again  to  the  firing  position  by  hydraulic  pressure 
applied  to  the  piston  in  the  recoil  cylinder. 

The  method  of  loading  and  firing  these  guns  has 


192  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

been  already  described,  but  some  statement  about  the 
breech  mechanism  will  be  in  place  here.  In  some 
foreign  systems  the  closing  of  the  breech  is  performed 
by  a  plug,  which  is  driven  downward  through  an  open- 
ing in  the  top  of  the  breech;  but  in  the  American 
system  the  plug  is  inserted  at  the  rear  of  the  gun  and 
held  in  place  by  a  screw-thread.  A  deep  and  strong 
thread  is  cut  on  the  plug  and  its  counterpart  in  the 
breech  aperture.  This  thread  is  then  cut  away  in  a 
number  of  wide  channels, — three  in  this  instance, — 
alike  in  plug  and  breech,  the  result  being  that  there 
is  presented  a  series  of  three  sections  of  thread  and 
an  equal  number  of  blank  spaces  between.  In  closing 
the  breech,  the  plug  is  pushed  in  with  its  threaded 
sections  opposite  the  channels  or  blank  spaces  of  the 
breech  opening.  This  done,  a  one-sixth  turn  of  tfie 
screw  causes  the  threads  to  engage  with  each  other 
and  effectually  locks  the  breech. 

In  removing  the  plug  for  reloading,  a  one-sixth 
turn  is  given  it,  so  as  to  disengage  the  threads;  it 
is  then  drawn  out  upon  its  tray,  and  by  a  third  move- 
ment is  swung  aside  upon  its  hinges.  In  a  more  re- 
cent method  two  movements  replace  these  three.  The 
plug  is  made  conical  instead  of  cylindrical,  so  that, 
after  the  threads  are  freed,  a  single  movement  draws 
it  out  and  swings  it  aside  upon  its  hinge.  There  are 
numerous  breech  mechanisms  in  use,  some  of  them 
being  very  complicated.  The  system  employed  in  the 
vessels  in  question  is  greatly  simplified  over  some  older 
designs,  all  the  movements  of  unlocking  and  locking 
the  gun  being  performed  by  one  man  with  the  aicl  of 
a  crank  placed  on  the  side  of  the  gun.  The  first  move- 
ment of  this  crank  gives  the  plug  a  one-sixth  turn 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  193 

and  frees  the  threads.  Other  movements  draw  it  out 
and  swing  it  aside  upon  its  hinge.  In  restoring  it  to 
place  a  reversal  of  these  movements  is  all  that  is 
needed. 

The  battle-ships  with  which  we  are  here  concerned 
are  among  the  most  powerful  of  those  now  afloat 
in  the  navy  of  any  nation.  Their  structural  and 
armored  protection  is  of  the  first  rank,  and  they  fairly 
bristle  with  guns,  large  and  small.  There  are  faster 
and  larger  battle-ships,  but  none  that  could  give  as 
hard  blows  or  show  more  powers  of  endurance  than 
these  grim  dogs  of  war.  Their  preponderance  lies  in 
the  eight  8-inch  guns,  which  occupy  the  four  sub- 
ordinate turrets.  The  ordinary  type  of  battle-ship 
has  a  main  battery  of  four  heavy  guns  in  the  fore  and 
aft  turrets,  with  a  secondary  broadside  battery  of  5- 
or  6-inch  guns;  the  former  for  armor-piercing,  the 
latter  for  use  against  the  weaker  portions  of  an  ad- 
versary's hull.  To  this  armament  the  Oregon  and 
her  sister  ships  add  the  powerful  extra  battery  of  the 
eight  8-inch  guns,  each  capable  of  throwing  a  250- 
pound  ball  or  shell  with  immense  force.  This  pre- 
ponderance of  firing  power  must  prove  of  great  im- 
portance in  a  battle  with  any  hostile  ship. 

To  conclude  our  description  of  these  battle-ships, 
it  may  be  said  that  the  Oregon  has  a  maximum  of 
1 1,1 1 1  horse-power,  sufficient  to  give  her  16.79  knots 
of  trial  speed.  The  Massachusetts  has  10,403  horse- 
power and  made  16.21  knots,  and  the  Indiana  shows 
9738  horse-power  and  attained  15.54  knots  of  speed. 
Their  engines  are  of  the  vertical,  triple-expansion  type, 
each  enclosed  in  a  water-tight  compartment,  and  are 
driven  by  six  steel  boilers  of  the  horizontal  fire-tube 

13 


194  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

type.  They  are  run  at  a  steam-pressure  of  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty  pounds,  and,  in  addition  to  supplying 
steam  for  the  main  engines,  operate  eighty-six  other 
engines,  or  one  hundred  and  fifty-eight  cylinders  in  all, 
these  auxiliary  engines  being  employed  in  various 
duties  about  the  ship.  In  short,  such  a  ship  resembles 
a  great  floating  workshop  filled  with  intricate  ma- 
chinery, a  hive  of  industry  run  by  mechanics  under  the 
title  of  sailors. 

The  ships  just  described  have  been  designated  in 
naval  lists,  as  has  been  said,  coast-defence  battle-ships. 
The  IOWA,  next  to  be  considered,  enjoys  the  distinc- 
tion of  being  a  sea-going  battle-ship,  of  first-class 
dimensions,  and  is  at  once  the  largest  and  the  swiftest 
of  our  battle-ships  yet  in  commission.  This  division 
into  coast-defence  and  sea-going  battle-ships  is,  how- 
ever, somewhat  misleading.  The  Iowa  bears  a  gen- 
eral resemblance  to  the  ships  above  mentioned,  and, 
though  the  latter  were  not  specifically  designated  as 
sea-going,  the  remarkable  performance  of  the  Oregon, 
in  her  thirteen-thousand-mile  journey  from  San  Fran- 
cisco around  South  America  to  Florida,  has  proved 
conclusively  the  sea-going  powers  of  ships  of  her  class. 
Yet  the  elements  requisite  to  a  sea-boat  of  the  highest 
grade  have  been  somewhat  sacrificed  in  these  ships  in 
favor  of  massive  armor  and  heavy  guns,  making  them, 
in  the  opinion  of  naval  engineers,  the  most  powerful 
fighting  ships  in  the  world. 

The  building  of  the  Iowa  was  authorized  by  Con- 
gress July  19,  1892,  her  keel  was  laid  August  5,  1893., 
she  was  launched  March  28,  1896,  and  commissioned 
June  1 6,  1897,  so  that  she  was  less  than  a  year  in  ser- 
vice when  called  to  take  part  in  the  war  with  Spain. 


;:V» 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  195 

Her  builders  were  William  Cramp  &  Sons,  of  Phila- 
delphia, and  her  contract  price  $3,010,000.  The  Iowa 
has  a  load-line  length  of  three  hundred  and  sixty  feet, 
with  seventy-two  feet  breadth  of  beam,  and  a  mean 
draught  of  twenty-four  feet.  She  is  fitted  with  twin- 
screw,  vertical,  triple-expansion  engines,  capable  of 
producing  12,105  horse-power,  and  on  her  trial  trip 
showed  a  speed  of  17.087  knots  per  hour,  the  highest 
possessed  by  or  estimated  for  any  of  our  first-class 
battle-ships.  Her  displacement  is  11,340  tons,  and  she 
is  capable  of  carrying  a  maximum  coai  supply  of 
eleven  hundred  and  ninety-seven  tons. 

The  Iowa,  for  the  purpose  of  adding  to  her  sea- 
going powers,  has  been  given  a  higher  freeboard  than 
the  ships  of  the  Oregon  class,  her  sides  having  been 
raised  eight  or  nine  feet,  or  about  the  height  of  an 
extra  deck,  from  her  bow  back  to  the  aft  8-inch  tur- 
rets. Her  freeboard  is  thus  about  twenty  feet  forward 
and  twelve  feet  aft,  while  the  Oregon  has  but  about 
twelve  feet  throughout  her  length,  a  flush  deck  ex- 
tending in  this  vessel  the  whole  length  from  bow  to 
stern.  This  structure  of  the  Iowa  lifts  her  forward 
pair  of  heavy  guns  about  twenty-five  feet  above  the 
water  at  normal  draught,  placing  them  beyond  the 
reach  of  head  seas,  while  in  the  Oregon  and  her  sister 
ships,  if  steaming  head  to  sea  in  heavy  weather,  green 
water  would  be  liable  to  roll  over  the  corresponding 
guns. 

Weight  is  reduced  in  the  Iowa  by  a  thinning  of  her 
side  armor-belt,  which  is  of  1 4-inch  Harveyized  steel, 
covering  the  ship  on  each  side  for  a  length  of  one 
hundred  and  ninety-six  feet  and  a  breadth  of  seven 
feet  six  inches,  of  which  three  feet  lie  below  the  water- 


196  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

line.  This  belt,  which  tapers  to  six  inches  at  the  lower 
edge,  has  a  backing  of  twelve  inches  of  solid  timber. 
The  bulkheads,  which  cross  the  ship  from  end  to  end 
of  the  side  armor,  are  of  1 2-inch  steel.  Above  this 
citadel  stretches  a  protective  deck  of  2|-inch  steel, 
which  is  continued  from  the  citadel  to  the  two  ends  of 
the  vessel. 

Above  the  heavy  armor-belt  what  may  be  desig- 
nated as  a  second  citadel  is  built,  its  side  walls  being 
of  4-inch  steel  and  extending  one  hundred  feet  fore 
and  aft,  while  its  diagonal  bulkheads  connect  with 
the  main  barbettes.  Belts  of  cocoa  cellulose  are  laid 
behind  the  armor-belt  to  prevent  the  inrush  of  water 
in  case  it  is  pierced.  It  is  believed  that  this  upper 
armor  will  have  sufficient  resisting  power  to  cause 
projectiles  charged  with  high  explosives  to  be  de- 
stroyed by  their  own  impact  before  they  can  penetrate 
to  the  interior  of  the  ship. 

The  hull,  like  those  of  the  other  ships  named,  is 
built  on  the  cellular  system,  its  water-tight  compart- 
ments being  numerous,  while  much  attention  has  been 
given  to  the  formation  of  such  compartments  through 
the  interior  of  the  ship. 

The  character  and  disposition  of  turrets  and  guns 
in  this  vessel  resemble  the  arrangement  in  ships  of  the 
Oregon  type.  Amidships,  at  either  end  of  the  ar- 
mored citadel,  rise  barbettes  with  1 5-inch  armor,  from 
which  emerge  turrets  protected  with  steel  of  the  same 
thickness.  Each  of  these  turrets  carries  two  12-inch 
breech-loading  rifles. 

Between  the  main  turrets  and  well  out  on  the  sides 
of  the  ship  are  four  smaller  turrets,  two  on  each  side, 
carrying  in  all  eight  8-inch  rifles,  each  of  which  can 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  197 

hurl  a  250-pound  shell  with  a  force  sufficient  to  pene- 
trate eight  inches  of  solid  iron  two  miles  away.  These 
are  armored  with  8-inch  steel.  The  main  battery  of 
the  Iowa  also  includes  six  4-inch  rapid-fire  guns,  capa- 
ble of  discharging  33-pound  shells  in  such  quick  suc- 
cession that  five  of  them  may  be  in  the  air  at  the  same 
time  between  the  ship  and  the  mark. 

In  addition  to  this  powerful  main  battery,  the  Iowa 
carries  on  her  superstructure  deck,  her  bridge,  and 
her  military  masts  a  secondary  battery  comprising 
twenty  6-pounder  and  six  I -pounder  rapid-fire  guns, 
four  Colt  machine-guns,  while  below  she  carries  four 
torpedo-tubes  provided  with  Howell  torpedoes.  The 
Iowa  is  the  only  ship  of  our  navy  which  has  torpedoes 
of  this  make.  The  single  mast  has  three  military  tops, 
increasing  her  powers  of  sending  a  plunging  hail  of 
balls  from  her  small  guns.  A  striking  feature  of  this 
ship  is  the  height  of  the  two  smoke-funnels,  which 
tower  one  hundred  feet  above  the  grate-bars,  this  ele- 
vation enabling  them  to  give  good  results  from  natural 
draught,  and  reducing  the  necessity  of  using  forced 
draught.  Stout  torpedo  nettings,  reaching  from 
water-line  to  keel,  may  prove  of  much  value  as  a  de- 
fence against  the  work  of  torpedo-boats. 

The  Iowa  differs  from  the  ships  of  the  Oregon  type 
by  carrying  the  1 2-inch  guns  in  her  forward  main  tur- 
ret and  the  8-inch  guns  in  the  side  turrets  on  the  same 
level, — twenty-five  feet  above  the  water-line.  The 
large  guns  in  the  aft  turret  stand  at  a  lower  level,  that 
of  eighteen  feet.  With  her  large  coal  capacity,  this 
ship  is  capable  of  steaming  at  a  speed  of  ten  knots  an 
hour  for  thirty-one  days,  or  over  a  distance  of  seven 
thousand  five  hundred  knots,  without  recoaling.  The 


198  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

spar-deck  forward  is  of  great  advantage  to  the  crew, 
adding  much  to  the  berthing  room,  and  assuring  them 
a  degree  of  comfort  which  cannot  be  provided  in  ships 
of  less  height  above  the  water. 

On  March  2,  1895,  Congress  authorized  the  addi- 
tion to  our  battle-ships  of  two  others,  to  cost  $2,250,- 
ooo  each,  their  designation,  like  that  now  given  to 
all  our  first-class  battle-ships  built  or  building,  being 
"sea-going  coast-line  battle-ships,"  this  composite 
designation  having  replaced  the  former  separation 
into  distinctively  sea-going  and  coast-line  ships. 
These  two  vessels,  known  as  the  KENTUCKY  and  the 
KEARSARGE,  were  contracted  for  January  2,  1896,  by 
the  Newport  News  Ship-building  Company,  and  their 
keels  were  laid  June  30  of  the  same  year.  Their  con- 
tract date  of  completion  is  January  2,  1899,  but  the 
exigencies  of  the  situation  will  probably  cause  their 
actual  completion  considerably  before  that  date. 

These  two  noble  ships  are  each  three  hundred  and 
sixty-eight  feet  long,  seventy-two  feet  beam,  and  are 
to  draw  twenty-three  feet  six  inches  of  water  and  show 
a  displacement  of  11,525  tons.  Their  engines  are  of 
the  twin-screw,  triple-expansion  type,  the  estimated 
horse-power  being  10,000,  the  speed  sixteen  knots. 
The  normal  coal  supply  is  four  hundred  and  ten  tons, 
but  bunker  capacity  has  been  provided  for  twelve  hun- 
dred and  ten  tons,  giving  an  estimated  cruising  range 
of  six  thousand  knots. 

These  great  vessels  carry  a  powerful  protective 
armor  of  Harveyized  steel,  covering  the  sides  to  four 
feet  below  and  three  feet  six  inches  above  the  water- 
line.  It  has  a  thickness  of  sixteen  and  a  half  inches 
at  its  upper  edge  and  tapers  downward  to  nine  and  a 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  199 

half  inches  at  the  lower  edge.  The  athwartship  bulk- 
head is  of  10-inch  steel  forward  and  1 2-inch  aft.  The 
protective  armor  extends  from  the  after  turret  to  the 
stern,  of  full  thickness  except  just  at  the  bow,  and  over 
all  is  laid  a  protective  deck  of  2f-inch  steel.  This  deck 
has,  like  the  protected  cruisers,  sloping  sides,  extend- 
ing downward  to  some  distance  below  the  water-line, 
and  affording  protection  to  the  front  and  rear  sections 
of  the  hull.  The  slopes  are  of  3-inch  steel  forward  and 
5-inch  aft.  In  place  of  the  cocoa-fibre  packing  used 
in  the  ships  already  named,  the  newly  invented  corn- 
pith  cellulose  is  employed  in  these,  and  is  to  be  used 
in  the  other  battle-ships  now  building,  its  advantage 
being  its  greater  lightness  and  its  superior  resistance 
to  the  entrance  of  water.  It  has  also  the  important 
quality  of  being  incombustible.  In  the  tests  of  this 
material  duplicate  coffer-dams  were  constructed,  one 
being  packed  with  cocoa-fibre  and  the  other  with 
corn-stalk  cellulose.  Into  each  of  these  a  6-  and  an 
8-inch  shell  were  fired.  Water  was  then  forced  into 
the  dams  under  pressure.  The  result  was  that  the 
water  soon  oozed  through  the  cocoa  packing  but  failed 
to  penetrate  the  corn-pith,  which  proved  to  be  com- 
pletely water-tight,  swelling  when  wet  so  as  hermeti- 
cally to  seal  the  rent.  This  material,  which  has  the 
further  advantage  of  being  an  abundant  home  pro- 
duct, has  therefore  been  chosen  by  the  Navy  Depart- 
ment as  what  is  technically  known  as  an  "  obturating" 
substance. 

The  special  characteristic  of  these  vessels  is  in  the 
arrangement  of  their  armature,  which  is  distinctively 
a  new  departure,  and  one  which  shows  the  ingenuity 
of  the  American  mind.  In  fact,  a  distinct  step  forward 


200  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

was  taken  in  constructing  the  battle-ships  of  the  Ore- 
gon pattern,  their  batteries  differing  from  those  of  any 
ship  then  afloat.  It  was  a  daring  and  novel  concep- 
tion to  flank  the  1 3-inch  guns  of  the  main  turrets  with 
eight  8-inch  turreted  guns,  placed  at  a  height  above 
the  water-line  that  gave  them  an  open  field  for  train- 
ing. European  engineers  doubted  that  so  heavy  an 
armament  could  be  successfully  carried,  but  trial  has 
proved  that  the  Oregon  and  her  sister  ships  are  quite 
capable  of  performing  all  that  was  claimed  for  them. 
In  fact,  they  more  than  fulfilled  expectations,  except 
in  one  particular,  and  the  defect  in  this  point  it  was 
sought  to  overcome  in  the  Kentucky  and  the  Kear- 
sarge  by  an  innovation  still  more  radical  and  daring  in 
conception. 

The  weak  feature  in  the  Oregon  type  of  armament 
is  the  following:  It  proved  unsafe  to  train  the  8-inch 
and  6-inch  guns  through  as  wide  an  arc  of  the  horizon 
as  had  been  intended.  In  the  original  design  it  was 
expected  that  the  8-inch  guns  would  be  serviceable 
both  for  broadside  and  for  direct  forward  and  aft  fire, 
and  might  be  trained  through  a  considerable  arc  on 
the  opposite  beam,  thus  sweeping  over  much  more 
than  half  the  circle  of  the  horizon.  With  this  idea  in 
view  they  were  placed  high,  in  order  that  they  might 
fire  across  the  tops  of  the  main  forward  and  aft  turrets. 
It  was  found,  however,  on  trial  that  this  could  not  be 
done,  the  blast  from  their  fire  being  so  powerful  that 
the  sighting  hoods  of  the  main  turrets  could  not  be 
used.  The  farthest  they  could  be  trained  was  80  de- 
grees forward  and  aft  of  the  beam,  and  it  became  ne- 
cessary to  place  stops  to  prevent  their  being  swung 
within  10  degrees  of  the  axial  line  of  the  ship.  There 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  201 

was  also  an  interference  between  the  fire  of  the  13- 
inch  and  the  6-inch  guns,  which  prevented  the  latter 
from  firing  dead  ahead  and  astern. 

These  difficulties,  it  is  true,  are  not  serious.  Battle- 
ships are  little  likely  to  engage  end  to  end,  and  for 
broadside  firing  the  whole  battery  of  these  ships  is 
available.  Yet  the  interference  in  fore  and  aft  fire 
was  foreseen  when  the  plans  for  the  Kentucky  and 
the  Kearsarge  were  made,  and  the  supposed  defect  was 
got  over  in  an  ingenious  manner,  which  is  without 
counterpart  in  any  other  of  the  world's  ships  of  war. 

Instead  of  providing  separate  turrets  for  the  1 3-inch 
and  8-inch  guns,  it  was  decided  to  make  two-storied 
turrets,  a  smaller  turret  for  8-inch  guns  being  placed 
on  top  of  each  of  the  1 3-inch  turrets,  the  double  turret 
revolving  as  one,  and  its  four  guns  all  firing  in  the 
same  direction.  The  fire  of  the  four  guns  in  each 
double  turret  can  be  concentrated  either  directly  ahead 
or  directly  astern,  while  the  whole  fire  can  be  com- 
bined on  either  broadside,  each  turret  revolving 
through  an  arc  of  270  degrees. 

The  design  of  these  vessels  has  called  forth  con- 
siderable adverse  criticism,  based  on  the  possibility 
that  the  blast  of  the  8-inch  guns  would  cause  serious 
inconvenience  in  the  1 3-inch  turrets  beneath.  But 
experiments  carried  on  at  the  Indian  Head  proving- 
grounds  with  improvised  platforms  go  to  prove  the 
contrary,  and  indicate  that  no  such  difficulty  will  arise. 
There  are  other  objections,  however,  made  to  the 
double-turret  system,  naval  experts  holding  that  the 
several  gun  stations  on  a  ship  should  be  as  far  apart 
as  possible,  so  that  a  successful  shot  from  an  enemy 


202  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

may  not  do  too  great  an  amount  of  damage  to  the 
guns. 

Thus,  if  in  a  contest  some  successful  shot  should 
wreck  the  lower  section  of  a  double  turret,  the  upper 
section  would  at  the  same  time  be  rendered  useless, 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  a  shell  might  penetrate  the 
lighter  armor  of  the  upper  section,  and  by  wrecking 
the  turning  gear  below  render  useless  all  four  of  the 
guns.  Again,  as  the  two  turrets  revolve  as  one,  the 
four  guns  must  always  point  in  the  same  direction, 
while  in  the  course  of  a  fight  it  might  prove  desirable 
to  train  the  1 3-inch  guns  in  one  direction  and  the 
8-inch  in  another.  All  these  questions  were  fully  con- 
sidered before  ordering  these  vessels,  and  the  double 
turrets  adopted  as  presenting  more  advantages  than 
defects.  But  the  system  has  not  been  chosen  for  the 
battle-ships  ordered  since. 

The  Kentucky  and  the  Kearsarge  have  been  very 
stoutly  built,  the  beam  being  in  a  large  proportion  to 
the  length,  speed  having  been  somewhat  sacrificed  to 
enable  these  ships  to  stand  the  shock  of  fire  of  so 
many  heavy  guns  at  one  point,  and  to  prevent  mis- 
fire through  oscillation  of  the  ship.  The  turrets  are 
strongly  protected  by  steel  armor,  the  barbettes  having 
15-inch  armor  in  front,  1 2-inch  in  rear;  the  lower 
turret  17-inch  in  front,  1 5-inch  in  rear;  and  the  upper 
turret  n-inch  in  front,  Q-inch  in  rear.  The  2}-inch 
steel  deck  slopes  down  at  the  sides,  thickening  to  three 
inches  on  the  forward  and  five  inches  on  the  rear  slope. 
All  this  armor  is  of  Harveyized  nickel  steel. 

We  have  described,  however,  only  a  portion  of  the 
powerful  main  armament  of  these  great  war  monarchs. 
Their  dispensing  with  side  turrets  has  left  room  for 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  203 

a  broadside  battery  of  great  effectiveness.  This  con- 
sists of  fourteen  5-inch  rapid-fire  guns,  seven  on  each 
broadside.  These  are  ranged  along  the  main  deck  in 
a  central  battery  between  the  two  turrets,  each  gun 
having  an  effective  range  of  90  degrees.  They  are 
protected  by  six  inches  of  steel  armor. 

The  shells  thrown  by  these  guns  are  much  lighter 
than  those  of  the  8-inch,  in  the  proportion  of  50  to 
250  pounds.  But  this  decrease  in  weight  is  in  a 
measure  made  up  by  their  much  greater  rapidity  of 
fire.  In  a  single  minute  one  of  these  5-inch  batteries 
could  belch  from  its  iron  muzzles  fifty-six  of  these 
5O-pound  shells,  or  a  total  of  nearly  three  thousand 
pounds  of  steel,  at  a  velocity  of  two  thousand  three 
hundred  feet  a  second,  its  striking  power  being  equiva- 
lent to  the  enormous  total  of  102,704  foot-tons.  This 
power,  if  applied  to  the  ship  itself,  would  be  sufficient 
to  lift  it  bodily  nine  feet  into  the  air. 

Something  further  may  fitly  be  said  here  about  the 
huge  instruments  of  destruction,  the  great  1 3-inch 
guns,  with  which  nearly  all  of  our  battle-ships  are 
provided.  These  great  steel  tubes,  forty  feet  long  and 
weighing  over  sixty  tons  each,  are  competent  to  throw 
an  noo-pound  shell,  with  a  reasonable  degree  of  ac- 
curacy, through  a  range  of  twelve  or  thirteen  miles, 
and  with  a  force  of  impact  capable  of  penetrating  over 
thirty-four  inches  of  wrought  iron  at  their  muzzles, 
and  twenty-two  inches  at  a  mile's  distance.  The  maxi- 
mum range,  however,  cannot  be  had  on  shipboard, 
since  it  would  require  so  great  an  elevation  that  the 
recoil  would  be  apt  to  drive  the  heavy  gun,  like  a 
huge  battering-ram,  down  deep  into  the  vitals  of  the 
ship,  doing  far  more  harm  within  than  its  massive  shell 


204  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

is  likely  to  do  without.  The  elevation,  therefore,  needs 
to  be  reduced,  but  the  great  shell  can  be  hurled  for 
five  or  six  miles  with  exact  aim  and  destructive  effect. 

The  utility  of  these  great  guns  in  actual  warfare, 
as  compared  with  smaller  and  more  active  ordnance, 
is  a  debated  question.  Their  ammunition  is  so  heavy 
that  only  a  moderate  number  of  discharges  can  be 
provided  for,  while  the  effect  upon  the  guns  them- 
selves of  their  employment  is  such  as  to  render  them 
useless  before  they  are  long  in  service.  Warfare  con- 
ducted with  such  weapons  is,  therefore,  enormously 
expensive,  and  in  the  naval  warfare  of  the  future  the 
greatest  dependence  will  probably  be  placed  on  the 
smaller,  less  costly,  and  more  easily  handled  and 
quickly  fired  guns. 

One  further  item  of  information  may  be  given  here. 
In  most  of  our  ships  of  war  hydraulic  or  steam  power 
is  employed  for  turning  the  turrets  and  the  other 
operations  calling  for  power  within  the  ship.  In  one 
instance,  that  of  the  monitor  Terror,  as  already  de- 
scribed, compressed  air  has  been  substituted  for  these 
purposes,  and  very  effectively.  In  the  Kentucky  and 
the  Kearsarge,  on  the  contrary,  electric  power  has  been 
introduced.  Only  one  other  ship  is  provided  with 
this  new  agent  of  power,  the  Brooklyn,  two  of  whose 
turrets  are  moved  by  steam  and  two  by  electricity.  In 
the  three  battle-ships  of  the  Alabama  pattern,  now 
building,  a  return  has  been  made  to  the  hydraulic 
system. 

On  June  10,  1896,  Congress  authorized  the  con- 
struction of  three  more  first-class  battle-ships,  which 
were  contracted  for  in  September  of  the  same  year, 
three  years  being  allowed  for  their  construction. 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  205 

These  were  distributed  among  the  three  principal  ship- 
building firms,  the  Alabama  being  assigned  to  the 
Cramps'  yard  at  Philadelphia,  the  Wisconsin  to  the 
Union  Iron- Works  at  San  Francisco,  and  the  Illinois 
to  the  builders  of  the  Kentucky  and  the  Kearsarge,  the 
Newport  News  Ship-building  Company.  These  three 
ships  are  being  hurried  to  completion,  and  will  prob- 
ably assume  their  place  in  our  navy  much  before  their 
contract  time.  In  April,  1898,  the  building  of  three 
more  battle-ships  was  authorized,  which,  when  com- 
pleted, will  give  the  United  States  a  fleet  of  twelve 
first-class  battle-ships,  each  quite  capable  of  holding 
its  own  against  any  ship  in  the  world.  The  tendency 
in  this  country  has  not  been  to  emulate  the  great 
14,000-  or  I5,ooo-ton  floating  fortresses  built  abroad, 
it  being  held  that  equal  strength  and  fighting  capa- 
city, with  greater  mobility,  could  be  attained  with 
vessels  of  smaller  weight.  None  of  our  battle-ships, 
therefore,  are  over  11,525  tons  displacement, — the 
weight  assigned  to  the  three  just  named  and  their 
two  predecessors. 

The  ALABAMA,  launched  in  May,  1898,  may  be  de- 
scribed as  the  type  of  these  three  sister  ships.  In 
size  she  exactly  accords  with  the  Kentucky,  being 
three  hundred  and  sixty-eight  feet  long,  seventy-two 
feet  two  and  a  half  inches  beam,  and  twenty-three  feet 
six  inches  mean  draught.  Her  proposed  power  and 
speed  are  also  the  same,  the  plans  demanding  10,000 
horse-power  and  sixteen  knots  of  speed.  Her  normal 
coal  capacity  will  be  eight  hundred,  and  her  full 
bunker  capacity  twelve  hundred  tons.  Like  the  Ken- 
tucky, also,  she  will  have  two  military  masts,  and 
similar  armored  protection,  the  only  difference  being 


206  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

that  the  slope  of  the  aft  steel  deck  will  be  of  4-inch 
steel,  instead  of  5-inch  as  in  the  Kentucky. 

The  general  similarity  here  indicated  does  not  apply 
to  armament,  the  double-turret  system  of  'the  Ken- 
tucky being  discarded,  while  the  Alabama  discards 
also  the  8-inch  guns  of  our  preceding  battle-ships,  re- 
placing them  by  a  marked  addition  to  the  weight  and 
power  of  her  secondary  battery.  The  round  turret  is 
here  replaced  by  what  is  known  as  the  elliptical  type, 
the  Alabama  turrets  being  of  oval  shape,  with  a  slight 
slope  to  the  front  plates,  the  rear  plates  being  vertical. 
This  form  has  the  advantage  of  being  lighter  and 
giving  more  room  at  the  rear  of  the  guns  than  in  the 
circular  turrets.  It  is  thus  an  advantage  to  the  gun- 
crews in  handling  and  loading  their  pieces.  The  turret 
overhangs  the  barbette  in  the  rear,  but  is  well  balanced 
and  can  be  revolved  with  considerable  ease,  even  when 
the  ship  has  a  heavy  list.  In  this  particular  It  is  su- 
perior to  the  circular  turret.  The  barbettes  are  pro- 
tected with  15-inch  steel  armor  in  Iront  and  lo-inch 
in  rear;  the  turrets  with  1 7-inch  front  and  1 5-inch 
rear  armor.  Three  sighting-hoods  are  provided,  one 
near  the  front  edge  of  the  roof  and  the  others  at  the 
two  sides.  Of  these,  the  centre  hood  is  for  the  use 
of  the  man  who  turns  the  turret,  and  whose  duty  it 
is  to  keep  the  guns  always  bearing  upon  the  target, 
while  the  others  are  occupied  by  the  gun-pointers, 
who  elevate  or  depress  the  guns. 

In  one  particular  the  sliips  of  the  Alabama  class 
differ  from  those  of  the  Kentucky  and  resemble  the 
Iowa,  their  sea-going  powers  having  been  increased 
by  the  addition  of  a  spar-deck  from  the  bow  of  the 
ship  back  through  three-fourths  of  her  length,  the 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  207 

freeboard  being  thus  increased  to  twenty  feet  in  the 
Alabama  as  compared  with  the  thirteen  feet  of  the 
Kentucky.  The  forward  turret  stands  on  this  spar- 
deck  and  is  elevated  to  a  height  of  twenty-six  and  a 
half  feet  above  the  water-line.  This  will  enable  the 
guns  to  be  fought  even  when  the  ship  is  plunging  head 
on  into  a  heavy  sea,  which  might  prove  troublesome 
in  the  case  of  ships  whose  forward  guns  lie  seven  or 
eight  feet  lower. 

The  after  turret  stands  at  the  lower  level  of  the  main 
deck,  thus  aiding  the  stability  of  the  ship,  which  would 
be  endangered  were  both  these  heavy  turrets  carried 
at  so  great  a  height.  The  8-inch  guns  of  the  earlier 
vessels  are  replaced  by  a  much  stronger  secondary 
battery,  since  the  5-inch  rapid-fire  guns  of  the  Ken- 
tucky are  represented  in  the  Alabama  by  a  battery  of 
fourteen  6-inch  rapid-fire  guns,  a  difference  in  size 
which  is  equivalent  to  a  doubling  in  weight  of  the 
projectile,  shells  of  loo-pound  weight  taking  the  place 
of  the  5o-pound  shells  of  the  5-inch  guns.  While  the 
latter  are  capable  of  penetrating  thirteen  inches  of 
wrought  iron  at  their  muzzles,  the  6-inch  guns  have  a 
greater  muzzle  velocity  and  a  penetrating  power  of 
15.6  inches. 

The  battery  of  the  Alabama  is  also  better  arranged, 
and  the  gunners  have  more  protection.  Eight  of  the 
guns  will  occupy  a  central  battery  on  the  main  deck, 
four  on  each  side,  their  protection  being  an  armor- 
belt  of  5^-inch  steel.  Two  more,  similarly  protected, 
will  be  placed  on  the  same  deck  in  the  bows,  while 
the  remaining  four  guns  will  be  mounted  on  the  spar- 
deck,  behind  protecting  walls  of  6-inch  steel.  The 
latter  will  be  able  to  fire  dead  ahead  and  dead  astern 


208  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

as  well  as  broadside.  A  full  broadside  from  this  bat- 
tery of  6-inch  guns  will  have  immense  power,  and  be 
capable  of  making  serious  havoc  in  the  unprotected 
or  lightly  armored  portions  of  an  enemy's  ship. 

The  secondary  battery  comprises  sixteen  6-pounder 
and  four  I -pounder  rapid-fire  guns,  one  Colt  machine- 
and  two  field-guns,  while  below  four  long  Whitehead 
torpedo-tubes  are  provided.  In  one  respect  the  Ala- 
bama type  differs  from  the  other  ships  of  our  navy  in 
carrying  her  smoke-stacks  abreast  each  other  instead 
of  fore  and  aft.  This  is  a  system  borrowed  from 
abroad. 

In  concluding  our  notice  of  the  battle-ships  of  the 
United  States  navy,  it  may  be  repeated  that  they  have 
no  superiors  in  the  world,  carrying  not  only  heavier 
armor  and  guns  than  ships  of  equal  displacement  in 
other  navies,  but  surpassing  in  this  respect  some 
foreign  ships  of  considerably  heavier  weight.  Thus, 
the  British  ship  Majestic,  with  a  displacement  of  15,000 
tons,  carries  four  1 2-inch  guns  against  the  four  13- 
inch  of  nearly  all  our  battle-ships,  while  her  twelve 
6-inch  guns  are  surpassed  by  the  fourteen  of  the  same 
size  on  the  Alabama  and  her  sister  ships.  The  pro- 
tection of  the  latter  also  is  greater,  the  side  and  turret 
armor  alike  being  thicker.  The  greater  coal  and  am- 
munition capacity  of  the  large  foreign  ships  is  about 
the  only  thing  to  be  said  in  their  favor,  this  condition 
being  of  less  importance  to  our  ships,  as  they  are 
likely  to  have  shorter  journeys  to  make. 

In  this  connection  it  seems  advisable  to  quote  from 
an  article  by  an  eminent  English  naval  authority,  pub- 
lished in  the  Fortnightly  Review  of  July,  1894.  After 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  209 

giving  an  analysis  of  the  United  States  navy,  built  and 
building,  he  says, — 

"This  is  a  modern  fleet  superior,  upon  the  whole, 
to  any  modern  fleet  in  existence,  the  fleets  of  Great 
Britain,  France,  Italy,  Russia,  and  perhaps  Germany 
only  excepted,  and  most  of  the  vessels  have  not,  I 
believe,  their  betters  of  similar  class  in  any  navy.  To 
some  of  these  vessels  I  would  call  particular  attention, 
since  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  value  of  a  fleet  depends 
quite  as  much  upon  the  quality  as  upon  the  mere 
number  of  units  composing  it,  and  since,  in  respect 
of  the  qualities  of  some  of  its  newer  ships,  the  United 
States  assuredly  stands  far  ahead  of  the  rest  of  the 
world  to-day." 

Taking  the  Iowa  and  the  three  ships  of  the  Indiana 
class,  he  compares  them,  point  for  point,  with  the 
British  ship  Renown  and  the  French  ship  Jauregui- 
berry,  which  he  considers  the  finest  battle-ships  of 
about  the  same  size  belonging  to  these  two  nations. 
He  proceeds: 

"  It  will  be  observed  that  the  Indiana  and  Iowa  com- 
pare unfavorably  in  the  matter  of  speed  with  both  the 
Renown  and  the  Jaureguiberry;  but  in  almost  every 
other  respect  they  seem  to  be  immensely,  nay,  crush- 
ingly,  superior.  And  I  do  not  consider  great  speed 
as  of  supreme  importance  to  the  battle-ship.  What, 
for  example,  would  be  the  value,  in  practice,  of  the 
Renown's  superior  speed  as  against  the  Indiana?  It 
might,  it  is  true,  enable  our  ship  to  force  an  action; 
but,  with  an  opponent  so  greatly  superior  in  gun-fire, 
our  ship  could  scarcely  hope,  other  things  being  equal, 
to  achieve  success.  If  the  two  ships  engaged  bow  to 
bow,  stern  to  stern,  or  bow  to  stern,  the  United  States 

14 


210  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

ship  could  deal  blows  much  more  numerous  than  those 
of  the  British  ship,  and  in  the  aggregate  nearly  thrice 
as  heavy.  Even  if  they  engaged  broadside  to  broad- 
side, the  aggregate  energy  of  the  American  fire  would 
be  much  more  than  double  that  of  the  British. 

"  Put  our  huge  Royal  Sovereign  or  our  coming 
Prince  George  as  our  champion  instead  of  our  Re- 
nown, and  we  will  not  fare  much  better,  for  the  Ameri- 
cans distribute  their  guns  more  advantageously  than 
we  do,  and  their  battle-ships  which  I  have  cited  repre- 
sent more  sensible  compromises  of  the  rival  claims  of 
speed,  radius  of  action,  gun  power,  and  armor  than 
any  of  ours.  If  our  battle-ship  be  unequal  to  the  task 
of  engaging  another  battle-ship  of  inferior  displace- 
ment, superior  speed  will  avail  the  former  little,  unless 
to  enable  her  to  run  out  of  danger.  Yet  is  not  the 
main  object  of  a  battle-ship,  after  all,  to  fight?  In  the 
war  of  1812  we  were  obliged,  much  against  our  will, 
to  take  lessons  from  the  United  States  on  the  subject 
of  the  proper  way  of  gunning  frigates.  We  might  do 
worse  now  than  take  lessons  from  the  United  States 
on  the  subject  of  the  proper  way  of  gunning  battle- 
ships; and  also  of  gunning  cruisers,  for  the  American 
cruisers  are  as  superior  to  ours  as  the  American 
battle-ships  are." 

After  this  tribute  to  the  splendid  character  of  our 
ships  of  war  from  an  authority  across  the  waters,  noth- 
ing more  need  be  said.  Enforced  praise  like  this  from 
an  admiring  rival  bears  greater  weight  than  anything 
a  patriotic  American  could  say. 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  211 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  CRUISERS  NEW  YORK  AND  BROOKLYN. 

WE  have  dealt  with  the  line-of-battle  ships  of  the 
new  American  navy,  and  now  must  devote  attention 
to  its  frigates,  or  their  recent  counterparts,  the 
cruisers,  the  light  cavalry  of  the  seas,  whose  duty  it  is 
to  patrol  the  ocean,  keeping  keenly  on  the  watch  for 
an  enemy's  ships,  convoying  merchant  vessels  or  cap- 
turing those  of  the  foe,  seeking  and  fighting  the  regu- 
lar and  auxiliary  cruisers  of  the  hostile  fleet,  dashing 
home  at  top  speed  with  despatches,  and  performing 
other  duties  that  call  for  swiftness,  alertness,  and 
strength.  Such  a  ship  needs  to  be  a  good  sea-boat, 
with  lofty  freeboard,  adapting  her  to  steam  at  high 
speed  in  rough  weather.  She  needs  to  be  considerably 
swifter  than  the  battle-ships,  and  to  be  provided  with 
powerful  engines  and  large  coal  capacity,  so  that  she 
may  keep  long  afloat;  she  needs  berth-room  for  a 
large  crew,  since  the  capture  of  prizes  may  demand 
the  sending  out  of  prize-crews;  and  she  must  be 
strongly  enough  armed  to  fight  with  ships  of  her  own 
class,  though  not  fitted  to  stand  against  the  massive 
guns  of  the  great  fighting  ships. 

The  United  States  navy  is  fairly  rich  in  ships  of  this 
class,  having  twenty  in  all,  variously  designated  as 
armored,  protected,  and  unprotected  cruisers.  In  this 
chapter  it  is  proposed  to  deal  with  the  first  of  these,  the 


212  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

armored  cruisers,  of  which  we  possess  two,  strong  and 
swift  steeds  of  the  ocean,  fitted  to  make  a  gallant 
record  against  the  less  massive  battle-ships,  while 
there  are  few  lesser  ships  that  float  on  the  waves  that 
could  safely  join  in  battle  these  proud  lords  of  the 
open  seas. 

The  cruisers  began  as  wooden  vessels,  made  to  run, 
not  to  fight,  except  with  craft  of  their  own  type.  From 
these  emerged  the  protected  cruisers,  still  with  hulls 
of  timber,  but  with  decks  of  steel,  from  which  any  ball 
coming  at  an  angle  would  be  likely  to  glance  and  end 
its  career  uselessly  in  the  ocean  wave.  The  final  stage 
of  evolution  was  into  the  armored  cruisers,  with  a  side 
belt  of  steel,  much  thinner  than  that  of  the  battle-ship, 
yet  having  fair  resisting  powers,  while  they  carry 
heavier  guns,  shielded  by  thicker  armor,  than  the 
other  ships  of  their  class,  and  maintain  their  requisite 
of  high  speed.  Our  navy  has  at  present  two  cruisers 
of  this  class,  the  New  York  and  the  Brooklyn,  which 
call  for  particular  attention  at  our  hands. 

Of  all  the  ships  of  the  United  States,  the  great  ar- 
mored ocean  greyhound  NEW  YORK  stands  first  in 
public  estimation,  it  being  apparently  the  most  widely 
known  and  most  admired  war-vessel  afloat  upon  our 
seas.  And  this  appreciation  seems  not  confined  to 
the  people  at  large,  but  appears  to  extend  to  naval 
officers  as  well,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  fact  that 
Admiral  Sampson  has  chosen  this  noble  vessel  as  the 
flag-ship  of  his  fleet,  in  preference  to  the  battle-ships 
that  keep  it  company.  Doubtless  it  is  to  its  useful 
union  of  strength  and  speed  that  it  owes  this  flattering 
choice. 

Certainly  our  navy  has  no  handsomer  ship  than  the 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  213 

New  York,  her  nearest  rival  in  this  respect  being  the 
Brooklyn,  for  which  she  furnished  the  type.  Her  high 
speed,  great  power,  and  fine  proportions  brought  her 
into  general  favor  at  her  first  appearance,  and  went  far 
to  teach  naval  experts  abroad  that  the  republic  of  the 
west  proposed  to  be  second  to  none  in  the  quality  and 
performance  of  its  ships.  In  the  great  naval  demon- 
stration at  Kiel,  Germany,  in  June,  1895,  when  all  the 
nations  of  Europe  sent  their  proudest  vessels  to  take 
part  in  the  ceremonies  at  the  opening  of  the  Baltic 
Ship  Canal,  the  New  York  was  selected  to  represent 
the  United  States.  While  there  she  attracted  univer- 
sal attention  and  was  visited  three  times  by  the  Ger- 
man Emperor,  who  dined  aboard  on  one  of  those 
occasions  and  after  dinner,  about  midnight,  inspected 
the  machinery  of  the  ship.  In  the  course  of  this  in- 
spection, without  any  warning,  William  II.  (who  by 
the  way  was  supposed  to  be,  by  courtesy,  in  com- 
mand) suddenly  ordered  the  forward  and  after  engines 
to  be  disconnected,  which  to  his  amazement  was  done 
in  two  minutes  and  forty-six  seconds.  He  made  an 
exhaustive  inspection  of  the  ship  and  in  all  respects 
paid  more  attention  to  her  than  to  any  other  vessel  en- 
gaged in  the  demonstration.  On  her  return  trip  she 
crossed  the  ocean  in  two  hundred  and  forty-two  hours 
under  half-boiler  power  and  two  engines,  natural 
draught. 

The  New  York  represents  what  may  be  considered 
the  second  epoch  of  construction  in  the  development 
of  our  new  navy.  Before  her  appearance  a  displace- 
ment of  4500  tons  and  10,000  indicated  horse-power 
were  as  high  as  American  aspiration  reached  in  the 
building  of  cruising  ships.  The  Maine  and  Texas, 


214  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

indeed,  were  somewhat  larger  than  this,  but  the  latter 
of  these  was  designed  as  a  battle-ship,  and  the  former 
became  classed  as  such,  her  make-up  carrying  her 
beyond  the  level  of  the  cruiser  class.  The  New  York 
doubled  the  Texas  in  horse-power,  her  rating  being 
17,401  to  the  8610  of  the  battle-ship.  She  also  largely 
surpassed  the  Texas  in  displacement,  showing  8200 
tons  to  the  6315  tons  of  the  latter.  In  engine-power, 
indeed,  she  is  largely  in  advance  of  any  of  our  battle- 
ships, the  most  powerful  of  which  is  the  Iowa,  with 
about  12,000  horse-power,  while  the  New  York  shows 
a  motive  power  of  nearly  half  as  much  more.  This 
high  power  was  necessary  for  the  great  speed  de- 
manded of  her,  which  reached  on  her  trial  trip  the 
high  ultimate  of  twenty-one  knots. 

The  New  York  was  authorized  by  Congress  in 
1888,  being  the  chief  among  eight  new  vessels  called 
for  at  that  time.  She  was  built  by  the  Cramps,  at 
Philadelphia,  her  keel  being  laid  in  1890  and  the  ship 
completed  and  put  in  commission  August  I,  1893. 
The  New  York  is,  with  the  exception  of  the  Brooklyn, 
the  longest  vessel  in  our  navy,  her  total  length  on 
water-line  being  three  hundred  and  eighty-four  feet. 
Her  extreme  breadth  is  sixty-four  feet  ten  inches,  and 
her  draught  a  little  over  twenty-three  feet.  She  is 
thus  longer  and  narrower  than  any  of  our  battle-ships, 
her  lines  being  adapted  for  speed,  not  for  massiveness 
and  stability,  as  in  the  latter.  She  was  built  at  a  con- 
tract price  of  $2,985,000. 

The  design  of  the  New  York  was  a  marked  depart- 
ure from  the  preceding  policy  of  our  Navy  Depart- 
ment. Her  predecessors  had  been  fast  protected 
cruisers  like  the  Baltimore,  or  comparatively  slow 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  215 

fighting  ships  like  the  Texas.  In  her  features  she  pre- 
sents a  combination  of  the  two,  while  as  a  whole  sur- 
passing both.  While  her  speed  was  increased  more 
than  three  knots  over  the  Texas,  her  armor  was  con- 
siderably reduced  in  weight,  yet  remained  strong 
enough  to  give  good  protection  to  her  vital  parts  and 
afford  a  strong  cover  for  her  main  battery.  In  respect 
to  provision  for  the  comfort  of  officers  and  men  and 
to  general  equipment  she  stands  high  in  the  rank 
of  war-ships,  while  there  is  no  vessel  of  her  rate  and 
class  in  foreign  navies  that  equals  her  in  economy  and 
efficiency. 

The  New  York  has  a  double  bottom  three  feet  six 
inches  in  width,  divided  into  eleven  water-tight  com- 
partments, while  the  entire  ship  has  one  hundred  and 
eighty-four  of  these  life-saving  divisions.  Along  the 
water-line,  extending  the  entire  length  of  the  ship  and 
through  a  width  of  three  and  a  half  feet,  is  a  coffer-dam 
filled  with  cocoa  cellulose,  for  protection  against  the 
entrance  of  water  in  case  of  the  penetration  of  shot  or 
shell.  The  quantity  of  cellulose  used  is  considerably 
greater  than  that  of  any  of  our  battle-ships,  perhaps 
from  its  being  considered  more  necessary.  The  total 
coal  capacity  of  the  New  York  is  twelve  hundred 
and  ninety  tons,  a  quantity  sufficient  to  enable  her 
to  steam  more  than  half  the  round  of  the  earth. 

The  protective  armor-belt  of  the  New  York  is  com- 
posed of  4-inch  nickel  steel,  and  extends  amidships 
through  about  half  the  length  of  the  ship  and  through 
eight  and  a  half  feet  of  width,  the  safety  of  the  engine 
and  boilers  being  the  main  purpose  designed.  Her 
protective  deck  carries  a  3-inch  thickness  of  nickel 
steel  on  the  flat  and  6-inch  on  the  slopes,  which  pass 


216  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

down  within  the  hull  from  a  point  one  foot  above  to 
nearly  five  feet  below  the  water-line,  thus  adding  effec- 
tively to  the  defence  afforded  by  the  outer  belt  of  steel. 

The  armament  of  the  New  York  is  powerful  for  a 
vessel  of  the  cruiser  class,  her  main  battery  consisting 
of  six  8-inch  rifled  guns,  which  her  high  freeboard 
enables  her  to  carry  twenty-five  feet  above  the  water. 
These  guns  occupy  three  turrets  protected  by  5j-inch 
nickel  steel,  and  rising  out  of  barbettes  of  lo-inch 
steel  armor.  She  carries  in  addition  twelve  4-inch 
rapid-fire  guns  in  sponsons  of  4-inch  steel.  The 
"  sponson,"  it  may  be  said  here,  is  a  curved  projection 
from  the  ship's  side,  provided  for  many  of  our  war- 
vessels,  in  order  to  give  the  guns  freer  play  and  a 
wider  range  of  aim. 

The  secondary  battery  consists  of  eight  6-poundei 
and  two  I -pounder  rapid-fire  guns,  four  Catlings,  and 
two  field-guns,  while  two  Whitehead  torpedo-tubes 
are  provided.  These  are  carried  on  her  superstructure 
deck  and  her  two  military  masts,  the  latter  being 
placed  fore  and  aft,  while  between  them  the  three 
smoke-stacks  rise  in  a  line  along  the  axis  of  the  ship. 

The  engines  of  the  New  York  present  a  novel  ar- 
rangement. She  possesses  four  complete  triple-ex- 
pansion engines,  each  of  the  twin  screws  being  driven 
by  two  of  these  engines,  coupled  together  and  work- 
ing on  the  same  shaft.  The  purpose  of  this  arrange- 
ment is  to  save  power  during  ordinary  cruising,  when 
the  forward  engines  are  uncoupled  and  only  the  rear 
ones  used.  Six  double-ended  main  boilers  and  two 
single-ended  auxiliary  boilers  supply  steam  to  these 
engines,  the  strength  and  power  of  the  arrangement 
having  proved  sufficient  to  drive  the  great  ship 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  217 

through  the  water  on  her  trial  trip  at  a  speed  of 
twenty-one  knots  for  four  hours  in  succession.  The 
propellers  are  three-bladed  screws  made  of  manganese 
bronze,  sixteen  feet  in  diameter  and  with  twenty-feet 
pitch. 

In  July,  1892,  Congress  gave  authority  to  the  Navy 
Department  to  construct  a  second  ship  of  the  same 
type  as  the  New  York.  This  vessel,  named  the  Brook- 
lyn, was  also  contracted  for  by  the  Cramps,  the  con- 
tract price  being  $2,986,000.  Her  keel  was  laid  on 
August  2,  1893,  and  the  vessel  commissioned  by  the 
Department  December  I,  1896. 

The  BROOKLYN  is  a  larger  vessel  than  the  New 
York,  being  four  hundred  feet  six  inches  in  water-line 
length,  sixty-four  feet  eight  inches  beam,  with  a  mean 
draught  of  twenty-four  feet.  Her  displacement  is  9215 
tons,  and  her  indicated  horse-power  18,769,  this  great 
power  giving  her  a  trial-trip  speed  of  21.91  knots. 
Her  coal  capacity  is  somewhat  greater  than  that  of 
the  New  York,  running  up  to  fourteen  hundred  and 
sixty-one  tons.  The  engines  of  the  Brooklyn  resem- 
ble those  of  her  prototype  in  number  and  arrange- 
ment, and  the  same  is  the  case  with  the  working  parts 
of  her  machinery  in  general.  As  she  sits  in  the  water, 
however,  she  presents  a  different  appearance  from  the 
New  York,  bearing  an  unusually  high  forecastle  deck, 
while  her  three  lofty  smoke-stacks  overtop  her  mili- 
tary masts,  to  which  they  give  a  squat  appearance.  In 
these  respects  she  lacks  something  of  the  grace  of  her 
sister  ship;  but  fighting  power,  not  good  looks,  is  the 
purpose  of  her  existence,  and  these  features  aid  her 
efficiency  as  a  ship  of  war. 

The  lofty  forecastle,  for  example,  lifts  her  forward 


218  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

pair  of  8-inch  guns  considerably  higher  than  those  of 
the  New  York,  they  standing  about  thirty  feet  above 
the  water,  a  height  of  whose  value  when  heavy  seas 
are  running  and  the  ship  plunging  through  combing 
billows  we  have  already  spoken.  The  lofty  smoke- 
stacks, which  are  one  hundred  feet  in  full  height,  are 
also  of  value,  as  enabling  her  to  dispense  with  forced 
draught,  with  its  frequent  injury  to  boilers.  Lofty 
smoke-stacks  are  found  to  give  as  good  results  with 
natural  draught  as  can  be  had  with  forced  draught  and 
low  stacks. 

The  military  masts  of  the  Brooklyn  are  larger  than 
those  of  the  New  York.  This  is  particularly  the  case 
with  the  foremast,  which  is  carried  up  to  the  first 
fighting-top  of  the  full  size  of  the  conning-tower. 
The  side  protection  is  somewhat  less,  3-inch  steel  in 
the  Brooklyn  replacing  the  4-inch  steel  of  the  New 
York.  The  protective  deck,  however,  is  of  the  same 
thickness,  both  on  the  flat  and  the  slopes,  and  an  equal 
weight  of  cocoa  packing  is  employed. 

The  battery  of  the  Brooklyn  surpasses  in  power  that 
of  the  New  York,  she  carrying  eight  8-inch  rifled 
guns,  which  are  mounted  in  four  turrets,  two  on 
the  middle  line  forward  and  aft,  and  two  amidships, 
sponsoned  out  on  the  opposite  sides.  These  guns  are 
protected  by  lo-inch  barbettes,  enclosing  the  bases  of 
revolving  turrets  armored  with  6-inch  Harveyized 
steel.  The  4-inch  guns  of  the  New  York  are  replaced 
here  by  5-inch  guns,  twelve  in  number,  each  capable 
of  firing  a  5O-pound  shell  with  a  muzzle  velocity  of 
2300  feet  per  second  and  a  penetrating  power  equal 
to  twenty-three  inches  of  wrought  iron.  Eight  of 
these  guns  are  carried  on  the  gun-deck  and  four  on 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  219 

the  main  deck  above,  all  being  sponsoned  out  on  the 
ship's  sides  and  protected  by  four  inches  of  Harveyized 
steel.  The  guns  are  so  arranged  that  no  interference 
will  take  place  between  them,  and  a  powerful  concen- 
trated fire  can  be  had  ahead  or  astern,  or  on  either 
broadside.  The  secondary  battery  is  also  stronger 
than  that  of  the  New  York,  consisting  of  twelve  6- 
pounder  and  four  I -pounder  rapid-fire  guns,  four 
Colt  machine-guns,  and  two  field-guns,  while  she  car- 
ries four  Whitehead  torpedo-tubes. 

The  distinguishing  feature  of  the  Brooklyn  is  the 
enormous  berthing  space  for  her  crew.  While  the 
New  York  is  very  commodious  and  well  ventilated, 
having  two  complete  living  decks — the  berth-  and  the 
gun-decks — extending  the  whole  length  of  the  ship, 
the  Brooklyn  surpasses  her  not  only  by  the  twenty 
feet-  greater  length  of  these  decks,  but  by  her  addi- 
tional forecastle,  one  hundred  and  nineteen  feet  long, 
the  whole  space  being  clear  except  that  taken  up  by 
the  forward  barbette  with  its  nearly  twenty  feet  of 
width.  By  adopting  the  usual  navy  regulations  for 
berthing  space,  the  Brooklyn  could  easily  find  sleep- 
ing-room for  a  thousand  men,  or  about  double  her 
ordinary  crew.  This  characteristic  will  give  her  un- 
usual value  when  in  service  on  distant  stations,  in 
enabling  her  to  carry  a  large  reserve  force  for  any 
squadron  of  which  she  may  be  the  flag-ship. 

While  the  engines  of  the  Brooklyn  are  of  the  same 
type  as  those  of  the  New  York,  there  are  some  dif- 
ferences worth  noting.  All  the  main  columns  are  of 
cast  steel,  instead  of  cast  iron  as  in  the  New  York, 
their  weight  being  thereby  reduced  about  twenty-five 
per  cent.  The  boiler  arrangement  is  also  different, 


220  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

and  gives  a  considerably  greater  grate  and  heating 
surface,  thus  adding  to  the  steam-making  efficiency. 

The  estimation  in  which  this  fine  ship  is  held  in  the 
navy  is  shown  by  her  having  been  selected  by  Com- 
modore Schley  as  the  flag-ship  of  his  squadron.  The 
New  York  and  Brooklyn  thus  hold  the  post  of  honor 
in  the  two  West  India  squadrons  into  which  our  At- 
lantic fleet  is  at  present  divided,  and  bear  aloft  the 
pennants,  the  one  of  an  admiral,  the  other  of  a  com- 
modore. 

It  will  be  perceived  that  in  the  four  years  that 
elapsed  between  the  building  of  these  two  fine  cruisers 
a  development  of  ideas  had  taken  place,  with  the  result 
of  producing  in  the  Brooklyn  a  larger,  more  commo- 
dious, and  in  various  respects  more  powerful  and  effi- 
cient ship  than  was  attained  in  the  New  York.  These 
two  armored  cruisers  have  given  such  satisfaction, 
alike  to  the  Department  and  the  public,  by  their  per- 
formance, that  there  exists  a  strong  sentiment  in  favor 
of  adding  to  their  number.  At  present  the  great  ship- 
yards of  the  country  are  actively  engaged  in  increasing 
our  list  of  battle-ships,  while  several  are  authorized 
which  are  not  yet  under  contract;  but  it  is  very 
probable  that  in  the  time  to  come  more  attention  will 
be  given  to  the  very  useful  class  of  ships  here  con- 
sidered, and  our  fleet  of  armored  cruisers  will  be  con- 
siderably augmented,  thus  adding  to  the  strength  of 
the  navy  in  a  field  in  which  it  is  at  present  deficient, 
and  rounding  up  the  circle  of  our  ships. 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  221 


CHAPTER    VI. 

THE   PROTECTED    CRUISERS    OF    OUR    NAVY. 

WITH  what  are  known  as  protected  cruisers  the 
United  States  navy  is  fairly  well  supplied,  there  having 
been  built  thirteen  of  this  class  of  vessels,  all  of  which 
are  in  commission,  and  several  of  them  notable  for 
high  speed  and  other  valuable  qualities.  The  pro- 
tection consists  in  their  having  an  armored  deck,  with 
steel  sides  sloping  downward  to  some  distance  below 
the  water-line.  It  was  with  vessels  of  this  class  that 
our  new  navy  came  into  existence,  three  such  cruisers 
having  been  authorized  in  1883.  These  were  the  At- 
lanta, the  Boston,  and  the  Chicago,  all  built  at  the 
ship-yard  of  John  Roach  &  Sons,  Chester,  Pennsyl- 
vania. By  the  terms  of  the  contract  they  were  to  be 
completed  in  January,  1885,  but  delays  took  place  for 
reasons  which  we  need  not  here  specify,  and  these 
ships  came  into  commission  successively  in  1886,  1887, 
and  1889.  At  the  beginning  of  1890,  therefore,  these 
three  small  cruisers  and  one  other,  the  Charleston, 
formed  the  whole  available  American  navy,  except  the 
ships  of  obsolete  pattern  remaining  over  from  our  old- 
time  fleet  and  the  decaying  old  monitors  laid  up  in 
ordinary  at  the  navy-yards.  The  first  armored  cruiser 
of  the  United  States  was  commissioned  in  1893,  and 
we  did  not  have  a  battle-ship  in  commission  until  1895. 
In  1890,  therefore,  we  should  have  made  a  sorry  show 


222  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

against  even  so  weak  a  power  as  Spain,  the  proud 
navy  we  have  now  afloat  having  come  into  existence 
in  the  years  succeeding,  and  the  bulk  of  it  having  been 
in  condition  for  service  for  very  few  years. 

What,  then,  was  the  character  of  the  ships  with 
which  our  navy  began?  Of  those  named,  the  AT- 
LANTA and  the  BOSTON  are  of  the  same  design,  rated 
as  brigs,  their  length  slightly  over  two  hundred  and 
seventy-one  feet  and  breadth  forty-two  feet,  with  a 
draught  of  sixteen  feet  ten  inches,  and  a  displacement 
of  3000  tons.  Their  power  is  derived  from  single- 
screw,  horizontal,  compound  engines,  and  amounts  to 
4030  horse-power,  yielding  a  speed  of  15.6  knots  per 
hour.  They  are,  in  addition,  provided  with  sails,  for 
use  when  speed  is  not  of  special  importance.  The 
protection  of  these  pioneer  vessels  consists  in  a  steel 
deck  one  and  a  half  inches  thick,  alike  on  flat  and 
slopes.  They  carry  heavy  batteries  for  vessels  of  their 
dimensions,  comprising  two  8-inch  breech-loading 
rifles  and  six  6-inch  rapid-fire  guns,  with  a  secondary 
armament  of  two  6-pounder,  two  3-pounder,  and  six 
I -pounder  rapid-fire  guns,  two  Colt  machine-guns,  and 
one  field-gun. 

Their  companion  boat,  the  CHICAGO,  is  rigged  as 
a  three-masted  schooner,  and  is  of  larger  size,  being 
three  hundred  and  twenty-five  feet  long,  forty-eight 
feet  wide,  and  of  nineteen  feet  draught,  with  a  dis- 
placement of  4500  tons.  Her  horse-power  is  esti- 
mated at  9000  and  her  speed  at  eighteen  knots,  she 
being  provided  with  engines  of  the  twin-screw  triple- 
expansion  type.  The  Chicago  has  the  same  protec- 
tion as  the  other  vessels  named,  a  deck  armor  of  ij- 
inch  steel.  Her  guns,  however,  are  numerous  and 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  223 

powerful,  embracing  four  8-inch  rifled  cannon  and 
fourteen  5-inch  rapid-fire  guns,  with  a  secondary  ar- 
mament of  seven  6-pounder  and  two  i-pounder  rapid- 
fire  guns,  two  Colt  machine-guns,  and  one  field-gun. 

The  next  additions  to  the  American  navy  were  the 
protected  cruisers  Charleston  and  Newark,  authorized 
by  Congress,  March  3,  1885,  the  former,  built  at  San 
Francisco,  being  put  in  commission  on  December  26, 
1889,  and  the  latter,  built  by  the  Cramps,  on  February 
2,  1891.  The  CHARLESTON  is  of  3730  tons  displace- 
ment and  6666  horse-power,  with  a  speed  of  18.2 
knots.  She  has  discarded  sail-power  and  is  provided 
with  two  military  masts.  The  protection  of  this  vessel 
surpasses  that  of  those  just  named,  her  deck  being  of 
2-inch  steel,  which  thickens  to  three  inches  on  its 
sloping  sides.  The  plans  for  this  ship  were  purchased 
abroad,  from  the  Armstrongs  of  England,  but  were 
considerably  revised  by  the  Union  Iron- Works,  her 
builders.  Her  dimensions  are  three  hundred  and 
twelve  feet  seven  inches  length,  forty-six  feet  two 
inches  beam,  and  eighteen  feet  seven  inches  draught. 
Her  engines  are  of  the  horizontal  type  used  in  many 
of  the  earlier  vessels  of  our  navy.  Engines  of  this 
character  were  at  first  deemed  necessary,  as  their  cylin- 
ders could  be  placed  well  below  the  water-line,  out  of 
danger  from  shot  or  shell.  But  the  use  of  the  pro- 
tective deck,  and  of  coal-bunkers  flanking  the  engine- 
room  on  each  side,  has  rendered  it  safe  to  introduce 
vertical  engines  in  our  later  ships.  The  greater  steam- 
pressure  now  employed  and  the  higher  piston  speed 
have  greatly  shortened  the  stroke,  so  that  the  cylinders 
now  in  use  are  of  reduced  height  and  their  tops  can 
be  brought  well  down  to  tHe  water-line. 


224  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

The  Charleston  carries  a  main  battery  of  two  8-inch 
and  six  6-inch  breech-loading  rifled  cannon,  and  a 
secondary  battery  of  four  6-pounder,  two  3-pounder, 
and  two  I -pounder  rapid-fire  guns,  four  Hotchkiss  re- 
volving cannon,  two  Colt  machine-guns,  and  one  field- 
gun.  The  8-inch  guns  are  placed  one  forward  and 
one  aft,  and  the  6-inch  are  sponsoned  out  on  the  sides, 
and  protected  by  shields  of  steel.  This  vessel  has  seen 
considerable  service  on  the  Pacific  coast,  and  in  late 
May,  1898,  was  despatched  across  the  ocean  to  the 
Philippine  Islands  to  strengthen  Admiral  Dewey's 
fleet. 

The  NEWARK  is  of  practically  the  same  dimensions 
as  the  Charleston,  though  one  foot  shorter  and  three 
feet  wider.  She  is,  however,  heavier  and  of  greater 
steam-power,  her  displacement  being  4098  tons  and 
her  engines  of  8869  horse-power,  giving  her  a  speed 
of  nineteen  knots.  She  is  schooner-rigged,  with  three 
masts.  Her  steel  decks  are  of  the  same  thickness  as 
those  of  the  Charleston,  but  her  armament  differs,  the 
main  battery  consisting  of  twelve  6-inch  rapid-fire 
guns  and  the  secondary  of  eight  6-pounder  and  four 
i -pounder  rapid-fire  guns,  four  Colt  machine-guns, 
and  one  field-gun. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  the  Newark  is  the  last 
protected  cruiser  of  the  new  navy  to  be  provided  with 
sail  power,  her  rig  being  a  compromise  between  the 
new  and  the  old  school.  Her  sails  are  found  to  be 
rather  an  injury  than  a  service,  they  acting  as  a  resist- 
ance instead  of  a  help  to  the  ship  when  at  full  speed. 
This  ship  performed  the  service  of  convoying  the 
Columbus  caravels  across  the  ocean,  from  Palos, 
Spain,  to  the  American  coast.  She  afterwards  took 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  225 

part  in  the  Columbian  Naval  Review,  and  then  towed 
the  Santa  Maria  to  the  St.  Lawrence  River,  on  its  way 
to  Chicago.  She  subsequently  was  made  the  flag-ship 
of  the  South  Atlantic  Squadron,  and  is  now  under  pro- 
cess of  repair. 

The  next  cruiser  to  be  provided  for  by  Congress — 
August  3,  1886 — was  the  BALTIMORE,  built  at  the 
Cramps'  ship-yard,  and  put  in  commission  January  7, 
1890.  This  ship,  which  had  the  honor  of  taking  part 
in  the  great  naval  battle  at  Manila,  has  a  length  of 
three  hundred  and  twenty-seven  feet  six  inches,  a 
breadth  of  slightly  over  forty-eight  feet  and  a  draught 
of  nineteen  feet  fix  inches.  Her  displacement  is  4413 
tons,  her  steam  power  10,064  horse,  and  her  trial  speed 
developed  20.096  knots  per  hour.  Her  rig  comprises 
two  military  masts. 

It  is  a  fact  of  some  present  interest  that  the  plans 
of  the  Baltimore  were  prepared  by  the  English  firm  of 
the  Armstrongs  and  offered  in  competition  for  the  con- 
struction of  a  Spanish  cruiser.  Failing  in  this,  they 
were  purchased  by  the  United  States  government,  and 
handed  over  to  the  Cramps,  who,  however,  made  some 
changes  in  them.  The  outcome  was  the  handsome 
and  successful  cruiser  which  now  forms  part  of  Ad- 
miral Dewey's  fleet.  The  contract  called  for  9000 
horse-power,  but  the  builders  showed  their  skill  in 
increasing  this  by  more  than  1000  additional  units  of 
power. 

The  Baltimore  has  a  protected  deck  of  2^-inch  steel 
on  the  flat  and  4-inch  on  the  slopes,  and  an  armament 
of  four  8-inch  and  six  6-inch  breech-loading  rifled 
guns,  with  a  secondary  battery  of  four  6-pounder,  two 
3-pounder,  and  two  i -pounder  rapid-fire  guns,  four 


226  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

Hotchkiss  and  two  Colt  machine-guns,  and  one  field- 
gun.  The  main  battery  of  the  Baltimore  is  carried 
eight  feet  higher  than  that  of  the  Charleston,  two  of 
her  8-inch  guns  being  carried  upon  a  forecastle  deck 
forward  and  two  aft  upon  the  poop.  They  are  all 
sponsoned  out  upon  the  beam,  and  constitute  a  power- 
ful battery  for  a  ship  of  this  class,  the  high  freeboard 
enabling  her  to  carry  her  guns  at  a  very  serviceable 
height. 

The  first  commander  of  the  Baltimore  was  Captain 
Winfield  Scott  Schley,  now  commodore  of  the  flying 
squadron.  One  of  her  most  notable  services  was  the 
conveyance  of  the  body  of  John  Ericsson,  the  great 
inventor,  to  his  native  land.  She  afterwards  cruised 
in  the  Mediterranean,  where  her  graceful  appearance 
and  efficient  design  attracted  great  admiration.  Pro- 
ceeding thence  to  Chili,  the  attack  on  some  of  her 
sailors  in  Valparaiso  almost  led  to  war  between  the 
United  States  and  that  South  American  republic. 
During  the  excitement  Captain  Schley,  fearing  an  at- 
tack from  the  Chilian  squadron  in  Valparaiso  Bay, 
made  ready,  if  interfered  with,  to  attack  the  ironclad 
Almirante  Cochrane,  which  lay  close  aboard.  At  a 
later  date  the  Baltimore  became  the  flag-ship  of  the 
China  station,  and  in  the  battle  of  Manila  Bay  suffered 
the  most  severely  of  the  fleet  from  the  enemy's  fire, 
the  eight  wounded  men  of  that  battle  being  members 
of  her  crew. 

In  1887  two  protected  cruisers  were  ordered,  the 
Philadelphia  and  the  San  Francisco,  the  contracts 
calling  for  their  completion  in  October,  1889,  and  both 
being  put  in  commission  in  the  following  year.  The 
House  bill  calling  for  the  construction  of  these  ships 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  227 

provided  for  ten  such  cruisers,  but  the  number  was 
subsequently  reduced  to  two. 

The  PHILADELPHIA  was  built  in  the  city  whose 
name  she  bears,  at  the  ship-yard  of  William  Cramp 
&  Sons,  where  she  was  launched  September  7,  1889. 
She  was  put  in  commission  July  28,  1890,  under  the 
command  of  Captain  Frederick  Rodgers,  and  hoisted 
the  flag  of  Rear-Admiral  Bancroft  Gherardi,  as  flag- 
ship of  the  North  Atlantic  squadron.  She  is  three 
hundred  and  twenty-seven  feet  six  inches  long,  forty- 
eight  feet  seven  and  a  half  inches  wide,  and  of  slightly 
over  nineteen  feet  draught,  her  displacement  being 
4324  tons  and  horse-power  8815.  On  trial  she  de- 
veloped a  speed  of  19.678  knots. 

The  protective  deck  of  the  Philadelphia  is  of  2^-inch 
steel  on  the  flat  and  4-inch  on  the  slopes,  and  her  arma- 
ment consists  of  twelve  6-inch  rifled  cannon,  four  6- 
pounder,  four  3-pounder,  and  two  I -pounder  rapid-fire 
guns,  three  Hotchkiss  and  four  Catling  machine-guns, 
and  one  field-gun.  Of  the  main  battery  of  6-inch 
guns,  two  are  mounted  on  the  forecastle  deck,  two  on 
the  poop,  and  four  are  ranged  for  broadside  fire  on 
each  side  of  the  gun-deck.  Her  guns  are  carried  well 
out  of  the  water,  and  when  the  slow-fire  are  replaced 
by  rapid-fire  guns,  as  is  likely  to  be  soon  the  case, 
she  will  compare  favorably  in  fighting  power  with 
any  of  our  cruisers  of  her  type.  On  the  conclusion 
of  the  Columbian  Review,  in  which  she  took  part,  she 
was  sent  to  the  Pacific  Station  as  flag-ship,  and  pro- 
ceeded from  New  York  to  Honolulu,  via  the  straits 
of  Magellan,  her  journey  being  noteworthy  as  the 
longest  run  ever  made  by  an  American  man-of-war 
on  one  coaling  and  without  aid  from  sails.  The  ma- 


228  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

chinery  of  the  Philadelphia  therefore  holds  the  record 
for  cruising  economy  and  coal  endurance  over  all  other 
ships  of  her  date  and  class. 

The  SAN  FRANCISCO  was  built  at  the  Union  Iron- 
Works  of  the  city  from  which  she  has  her  name,  where 
she  was  launched  October  26,  1889,  and  commissioned 
November  15,  1890.  She  is  of  three  hundred  and  ten 
feet  length,  forty-nine  feet  two  inches  breadth,  and 
about  nineteen  feet  draught,  her  displacement  being 
4098  tons  and  her  horse-power  9913.  Her  trial  trip 
developed  a  speed  of  19.525  knots.  Her  rig  is  that 
of  a  three-masted  schooner.  Her  engines,  like  those 
of  the  Philadelphia,  are  of  the  horizontal,  triple-ex- 
pansion type.  The  armament  of  the  San  Francisco 
is  identical  with  that  of  the  Philadelphia,  with  the 
addition  that  she  has  a  provision  for  torpedo  service, 
being  armed  with  four  Whitehead  torpedo-tubes.  Her 
protective  deck  is  of  less  strength,  being  of  2-inch 
steel  on  the  flat  and  3-inch  on  the  slopes.  She  has 
done  service  as  the  flag-ship  of  the  European  station. 

The  year  1888  was  somewhat  prolific  in  orders  for 
protected  cruisers,  the  Cincinnati,  the  Olympia,  and 
the  Raleigh  being  provided  for  by  the  Congress  of  that 
year.  Two  of  these,  the  CINCINNATI  and  the  RALEIGH, 
were  constructed  at  the  government  navy-yards,  the 
former  at  Brooklyn  and  the  latter  at  Norfolk.  They 
are  the  only  vessels  of  our  new  navy,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  Maine  and  the  Texas,  which  were  built  by 
the  government  for  itself,  all  others  having  been  put 
out  under  contract  in  the  large  private  ship-yards  of 
the  country. 

These  vessels  are  identical  in  size  and  power,  being 
three  hundred  feet  long,  forty-two  feet  wide,  and 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  229 

eighteen  feet  draught.  Their  displacement  is  3213 
tons,  and  their  horse-power  estimated  at  10,000.  Their 
speed  has  not  been  developed  on  trial,  but  is  estimated 
at  nineteen  knots  per  hour.  They  were  launched  in 
1892,  and  commissioned  in  1894,  and  are  nearly  iden- 
tical in  protection  and  armament;  their  decks  being  of 
i-inch  steel  on  the  flat  and  2^-inch  on  the  slopes;  their 
main  armament  consisting  of  one  6-inch  slow-fire  and 
ten  5-inch  rapid-fire  guns.  The  secondary  armament 
of  the  Cincinnati  comprises  eight  6-pounder  and  two 
i -pounder  rapid-fire  guns,  two  Colt  machine-guns, 
one  field-gun,  and  two  Whitehead  torpedo-tubes.  The 
Raleigh  carries  two  more  I -pounders,  and  is  provided 
with  Catling  instead  of  Colt  machine-guns. 

The  OLYMPIA,  the  third  of  the  three  ships  named, 
has  won  special  honor,  as  bearing  the  pennant  of  Com- 
modore Dewey  in  his  great  victory  in  the  Philippines. 
This  ship  is  of  western  origin,  having  been  built  at  the 
Union  Iron- Works  of  San  Francisco.  Her  keel  was 
laid  in  June,  1891,  she  was  launched  November  5 
of  the  following  year,  and  received  her  first  commis- 
sion on  February  5,  1895. 

The  Olympia  is  rigged  as  a  two-masted  schooner, 
and  is  three  hundred  and  forty  feet  long,  fifty-three 
feet  wide,  and  twenty-one  feet  six  inches  in  draught. 
She  has  a  displacement  of  5870  tons,  her  engines  can 
develop  17,313  horse-power,  and  her  record  of  speed 
is  21.686  knots.  This  fine  vessel  has  been  compli- 
mented as  being  a  smaller  edition  of  the  New  York, 
to  which  she  does,  indeed,  present  a  certain  resem- 
blance in  general  attractiveness  of  aspect  and  in  some 
other  particulars,  though  she  differs  in  type,  her  pro- 
tection being  confined  to  that  derived  from  an  armored 


23o  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

deck  of  2-inch  steel  on  the  flat  and  4J-inch  on  its 
sloping  sides.  This  replaces  in  considerable  measure 
internally  the  protection  given  by  an  external  armor- 
belt.  A  layer  of  cocoa  packing,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
two  other  ships  just  named,  affords  protection  against 
the  inrush  of  water. 

It  may  safely  be  said  that  there  is  no  other  protected 
cruiser  in  our  navy,  nor  in  any  other  navy,  that  sur- 
passes the  Olympia  in  those  qualities  that  go  to  con- 
stitute perfection  in  a  ship  of  her  class  and  size.  Her 
speed  is  as  great  as  can  well  be  had  without  the  sacri- 
fice of  some  other  feature  of  essential  value,  such  as 
protection  or  weight  of  guns.  The  Columbia  and 
Minneapolis  are  her  superiors  in  speed,  but  have  at- 
tained this  supremacy  only  through  a  considerable 
reduction  of  their  powers  of  offence.  They  can  run 
faster  than  the  Olympia,  but  cannot  fight  as  well.  If 
she  be  compared  with  the  British  ships  of  the  Eclipse 
type,  of  practically  the  same  displacement,  she  will  be 
found,  while  carrying  a  considerably  superior  weight 
of  guns,  and  a  heavier  deck  armor,  to  have  also  the 
advantage  of  over  two  knots  in  speed, — this  due  to 
her  greater  engine  power,  which  is  nearly  double  that 
of  the  British  ship. 

The  armament  of  the  Olympia  is  very  heavy  for  a 
cruiser  of  her  weight.  It  comprises  in  its  main  bat- 
tery four  8-inch  breech-loading  rifles,  which  are 
mounted  in  barbette  turrets,  the  barbettes  and  turrets 
having  respectively  4^-  and  3^-inch  steel  armor.  To 
these  heavy  guns  is  added  a  broadside  battery  of  ten 
5-inch  rapid-fire  guns,  while  the  secondary  battery 
embraces  fourteen  6-pounder  and  seven  i -pounder 
rapid-fire  and  four  Catling  guns  and  one  field-gun. 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  231 

The  provision  for  torpedo  service  is  exceptionally 
heavy,  there  being  no  less  than  six  tubes  designed  for 
Whitehead  torpedoes. 

The  5-inch  guns  are  ranged  in  sponsons  along  the 
deck  from  bow  to  stern,  protected  by  four  inches  of 
Harveyized  steel  armor,  and  so  placed  that  they  can 
give  a  direct  bow  or  stern  fire  from  four  and  a  broad- 
side discharge  on  either  side  from  five  guns.  The  8- 
inch  guns  stand  at  a  height  of  twenty-two  feet  above 
water  level,  and  can  be  trained  through  an  arc  of  208 
degrees.  The  fourteen  6-pounder  guns  are  ranged 
for  broadside  fire  around  the  decks,  and  the  smaller 
guns  on  the  bridge  and  the  fighting-tops  of  the  masts. 

The  Olympia  had  the  good  fortune  of  serving  as 
flag-ship  of  the  Asiatic  squadron  on  the  outbreak  of 
the  war  with  Spain  and  of  flying  Commodore  Dewey's 
pennant  during  his  rapid  run  from  Hong  Kong  to 
Manila  Harbor  in  the  Philippines.  In  the  terrific 
stream  of  fire  poured  from  the  American  ships  on  the 
Spanish  fleet  the  large  and  effective  battery  of  the 
Olympia  took  the  foremost  part,  and  the  rapid  and 
complete  demolition  of  the  fleet  of  Spain  was  due  in 
great  measure  to  the  driving  hail  of  shot  and  shell 
poured  in  a  ceaseless  torrent  from  her  guns.  Few 
ships  with  less  endurance  than  a  battle-ship  could  have 
stood  long  against  that  tempest  of  fire,  and  the 
Olympia  thoroughly  demonstrated  the  powers  of  de- 
struction possessed  by  modern  artillery  when  handled 
by  trained  and  skilful  gunners. 

There  remain  to  be  described  two  of  the  finest  of 
our  protected  cruisers,  the  remarkably  swift  Columbia 
and  Minneapolis,  ships  with  few  or  no  equals  of 
their  class  in  the  world  as  regards  power  of  cutting 


232  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

their  way  with  phenomenal  rapidity  through  the  ocean 
waves.  Speed  was  their  leading  purpose,  and  this 
they  attained,  at  some  sacrifice  of  weight  in  guns  and 
armor.  But  the  latter  requisites  are  of  secondary  im- 
portance, as  these  ships  were  built  to  act  as  commerce 
destroyers,  and  were  expected  to  trust  to  fleetness 
of  foot  in  avoiding  dangerous  enemies.  They  could 
play  around  any  vessel  of  superior  strength  in  the 
navies  of  the  world,  and  show  their  heels  at  will. 

The  COLUMBIA,  officially  known  as  "  Cruiser  No. 
12,"  was  authorized  by  Act  of  Congress  June  30,  1890, 
at  the  same  date  with  the  battle-ships  of  the  Indiana 
class,  and  was  built  at  the  ship-yard  of  the  Cramps, 
where  she  was  launched  July  26,  1892.  She  was  first 
put  in  commission  April  23,  1894,  under  command  of 
Captain  George  W.  Sumner.  For  several  years  prior 
to  her  building  the  great  desideratum  of  naval  archi- 
tects had  been  to  combine  high  speed  with  large  coal 
endurance  in  unarmored  or  protected  cruisers.  This 
was  held  in  view  in  building  the  Baltimore,  the  Olym- 
pia,  and  several  other  vessels,  but  none  of  these  were 
large  enough  to  carry  a  weight  in  coal  sufficient  for 
the  extraordinary  endurance  desired.  In  the  con- 
struction of  the  Columbia  both  these  requisites  were 
kept  in  view,  and  a  cruiser  was  ordered  of  much  larger 
size  than  any  previously  built,  and  of  engine-power 
superior  to  that  of  any  of  our  vessels  then  afloat. 

The  contract  for  the  Columbia  called  for  a  vessel 
of  about  seven  thousand  tons  displacement  and  twenty- 
one  knots  speed,  to  cost,  exclusive  of  armament,  not 
more  than  $2,750,000.  The  actual  cost  of  construc- 
tion was  $2,725,000,  for  which  sum  her  skilful  builders 
produced  a  vessel  of  7375  tons  displacement,  and  with 


if 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  233 

a  speed  reaching  on  trial-trip  the  remarkable  level  of 
22.8  knots  per  hour.  In  parts  of  her  course,  indeed, 
she  attained  a  speed  of  over  twenty-five  knots.  Of 
course,  the  trial-trip  speed  of  a  ship  does  not  indicate 
her  ordinary  performance,  which  is  considerably 
slower,  but  the  speed  of  all  war-vessels  is  rated  upon 
the  record  thus  made. 

In  making  this  rare  performance  the  Columbia  was 
driven  through  the  water  by  engines  of  18,509  horse- 
power, moving  triple  screws,  she  and  her  successor, 
the  Minneapolis,  being  the  only  ships  in  our  navy  with 
this  threefold  distribution  of  power.  The  three  screws 
of  the  Columbia  are  driven  by  three  triple-expansion 
engines,  each  in  a  separate  water-tight  compartment, 
one  of  the  screws  being  in  the  centre  line  of  the  ship, 
above  the  rudder,  and  the  other  two  under  the  op- 
posite counters,  as  in  twin-screw  vessels. 

This  triple-screw  method  of  moving  a  vessel  was 
in  1890  an  experiment.  The  French  had  tried  it  in  a 
steam-launch,  the  Carpe,  and  with  such  success  as  to 
induce  them  to  order  a  large  cruiser  built  on  this  sys- 
tem. The  Italians  had  tried  it  in  a  torpedo-boat  in 
1886,  but  had  afterwards  taken  out  the  centre  screw. 
Thus  when  George  W.  Melville,  engineer-in-chief  of 
the  navy,  decided  on  equipping  the  Columbia  with  this 
device,  it  had  never  been  tried  on  a  large  scale,  and  its 
effect  remained  to  be  proved.  Yet  he  believed  that  it 
would  be  of  advantage,  in  the  case  of  high  engine 
power,  in  dividing  the  work,  and  reducing  the  strain 
on  each  shaft.  If  two  screws  had  been  used,  over 
nine  thousand  horse-power  would  have  had  to  pass 
through  each.  By  using  three,  each  carried  but  about 
six  thousand  horse-power,  and  the  danger  of  a  break- 


234  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

down  was  much  decreased.  In  ordinary  cruising  only 
the  central  screw  is  used,  this  giving  a  speed  of  fifteen 
knots.  When  the  two  side  screws  are  used  alone 
seventeen  to  nineteen  knots  can  be  maintained.  With 
all  three  screws  the  high  trial  speed  becomes  possible. 

Some  of  her  critics  maintained  that  the  trial  speed 
of  the  Columbia  was  not  a  true  indication  of  her 
powers,  and  that  a  continuous  high  speed  could  not 
be  had  out  of  her  engines.  The  builders  and  the  Navy 
Department  denied  this,  and  eventually,  to  settle  the 
controversy,  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  ordered  her  to 
cross  the  Atlantic,  from  Southampton  to  New  York, 
at  full  speed.  The  start  was  made  on  Friday,  July  26, 
1895,  and  Sandy  Hook  was  reached  on  the  following 
Friday,  the  run  of  three  thousand  and  ninety  knots 
having  been  made  in  six  days,  twenty-three  hours,  and 
forty-nine  minutes,  the  mean  rate  of  speed  being  18.41 
knots  per  hour,  and  the  daily  coal  consumption  two 
hundred  and  twelve  tons.  Natural  draught  was  used 
throughout  the  trip.  No  other  cruiser  has  ever  made 
even  a  remote  approach  to  this  performance. 

The  coal  capacity  of  the  Columbia  on  her  normal 
displacement  is  twelve  hundred  tons,  but  by  filling  her 
bunkers  and  stowing  on  her  protective  deck  two  thou- 
sand two  hundred  tons  can  be  carried,  sufficient  to 
give  her  a  cruising  limit  of  sixteen  thousand  knots. 
The  protective  deck,  covering  the  ship  near  her  water- 
line  from  stem  to  stern  and  guarding  her  vital  parts 
from  injury,  is  of  2|-inch  nickel  steel  on  the  flat  and 
4-inch  on  the  slopes  over  the  engine-rooms,  the 
sloping  sides  extending  downward  to  several  feet 
below  the  water-line.  The  conning-tower  is  built  of 
5-inch  steel. 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  235 

The  Columbia  and  the  Minneapolis  are  the  longest 
vessels  in  our  navy,  and  comparatively  among  the 
narrowest,  they  presenting  that  slender  aspect  neces- 
sary for  high  speed.  Their  load-line  length  is  four 
hundred  and  twelve  feet,  their  breadth  slightly  over 
fifty-eight  feet,  and  their  draught  twenty-two  and  a 
half  feet.  They  have  a  two-masted-schooner  rig,  four 
low  smoke-stacks  rising  in  a  row  between  the  masts 
of  the  Columbia,  while  the  Minneapolis  is  content  with 
two,  of  larger  diameter. 

The  armament  of  these  ships  is  light  for  vessels  of 
their  size.  It  consists  of  one  8-inch  and  two  6-inch 
slow-fire  and  eight  4-inch  rapid-fire  guns,  with  a 
secondary  battery  of  twelve  6-pounder  and  four  i- 
pounder  rapid-fire  guns,  two  Colt  machine-guns,  and 
one  field-gun.  Each  also  has  four  Whitehead  torpedo- 
tubes. 

The  Columbia  was  selected  to  accompany  the  New 
York  in  the  naval  demonstration  at  Kiel,  on  the  open- 
ing of  the  Baltic  Ship  Canal,  and,  next  to  her  consort, 
was  the  vessel  of  the  fleet  that  attracted  most  atten- 
tion. It  was  after  this  demonstration  that  she  made 
her  phenomenal  run  across  the  Atlantic.  During  the 
war  with  Spain  she  was  placed  on  duty  in  patrolling 
the  coast,  in  view  of  threats  of  an  attack  on  our  coast 
cities  by  Spanish  cruisers,  and  on  the  evening  of  May 
28,  1898,  while  moving  along  near  Fire  Island  Light, 
off  New  York  harbor,  in  a  dense  fog,  was  run  into  by 
the  British  steamship  Foscolio,  the  two  vessels  coming 
together  with  a  terrific  crash,  the  prow  of  the  Foscolio 
making  an  immense  rent  in  the  cruiser's  side.  The 
British  ship  fared  the  worse,  her  whole  bow  being  torn 
off,  so  that,  despite  her  water-tight  compartments,  she 


236  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

filled  and  sank  in  a  few  hours.  The  rent  in  the  star- 
board side  of  the  Columbia  was  over  six  feet  wide,  and 
extended  from  near  the  upper  deck  to  five  feet  below 
the  water-line,  the  4-inch  thick  protective  deck  being 
bent  back  nearly  double  by  the  force  of  the  blow. 
Only  for  this  guard  of  steel  and  her  heavy  timbers, 
the  cruiser  would  probably  have  been  cut  in  two.  As 
it  was,  her  water-tight  compartments,  more  than  two 
hundred  in  number,  kept  her  easily  afloat,  and  a  short 
period  in  dry  dock  was  all  that  was  necessary  to  put 
her  in  order  for  service  again. 

The  MINNEAPOLIS  is  looked  upon  as  a  sister  ship 
of  the  Columbia,  the  chief  difference  in  construction 
being  the  use  of  two  large  smoke-stacks  in  place  of  the 
four  smaller  ones  of  the  Columbia.  She  was  author- 
ized a  year  later,  March  2,  1891,  and  was  completed 
and  put  in  commission  December  13,  1894.  She,  like 
the  former,  was  built  by  the  Cramps,  at  Philadelphia, 
under  a  contract  price  of  $2,690,000.  While  of  the 
same  size  and  displacement  as  her  sister  ship,  the  Min- 
neapolis is  of  higher  engine  power,  her  three  engines 
giving  her  a  maximum  of  20,862  horse-power,  the 
greatest  of  any  vessel  in  our  navy,  while  she  exceeds 
all  others  in  speed,  her  trial  trip  showing  a  mean  rate 
of  23.073  knots  through  a  run  of  eighty-eight  miles. 
In  the  words  of  her  builders,  "  Viewed  as  a  whole,  this 
performance  makes  the  Minneapolis  the  queen  of  pro- 
tected cruisers,  and  places  the  commercial  fleets  of  the 
world  without  exception  at  her  mercy." 

There  is  one  further  protected  cruiser  in  our  navy, 
the  NEW  ORLEANS,  formerly  the  Amazonas,  built  for 
Brazil  by  the  Armstrong  Company,  of  Newcastle, 
England,  and  purchased  by  the  United  States  in  1898, 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  237 

in  anticipation  of  war  with  Spain.  A  sister  ship,  to  be 
known  as  the  Albany,  was  also  purchased,  but  was 
not  completed  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  and  there- 
fore could  not  be  obtained  from  her  builders  until 
after  the  close  of  the  conflict. 

The  New  Orleans  is  three  hundred  and  thirty  feet 
long,  forty-three  feet  nine  inches  wide,  and  of  sixteen 
feet  ten  inches  draught,  her  displacement  3600  tons, 
her  horse-power  7500,  and  her  speed  21.05  knots.  She 
is  protected  by  a  Harveyized  steel  deck  of  3-inch 
thickness  on  its  curving  sides.  This  ship  carries  a 
powerful  armament  for  a  vessel  of  her  size,  her  main 
battery  comprising  six  6-inch  and  four  4.7-inch  rapid- 
fire  guns,  and  her  secondary  battery  ten  6-pounder 
and  four  I -pounder  rapid-fire  guns,  and  four  machine- 
guns.  She  has  in  addition  three  torpedo-tubes.  The 
guns  of  the  New  Orleans  are  of  the  latest  pattern,  and 
have  much  greater  power  for  their  size  than  guns 
made  four  or  five  years  ago;  they  are  provided  with 
improved  breech  mechanism,  which  adds  to  the 
rapidity  of  their  fire. 

The  6-inch  guns,  for  example,  are  fifty  feet  in 
length,  about  a  third  longer  than  was  attempted  for 
guns  of  this  dimension  a  few  years  ago.  Increased 
length  in  a  gun  adds  to  the  velocity  with  which  the 
projectile  is  driven  from  the  muzzle,  since  it  gives 
longer  time  for  the  gases  from  the  powder  to  act. 
By  such  an  increase  in  length,  the  power  of  larger 
guns  can  be  attained  by  those  of  smaller  diameter. 
As  compared,  for  instance,  with  the  Intrepid,  a  British 
cruiser  built  in  1892,  the  following  improvement  in 
gun-power  is  shown.  The  6-inch  guns  of  the  New 
Orleans  have  a  muzzle  energy  of  4840  foot-tons,  those 


238  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

of  the  Intrepid  3356  foot-tons.  An  equal  or  increased 
difference  is  shown  in  the  smaller  guns  of  the  two  ves- 
sels, indicating  an  immense  advance  in  gun  perform- 
ance in  the  past  few  years. 

Another  purchased  cruiser  is  the  TOPEKA,  bought 
from  an  English  firm  of  naval  builders.  She  is  little 
more  than  a  heavy  armored  gunboat,  being  of  only 
1800  tons  displacement.  Her  speed  record  is  sixteen 
knots,  and  she  carries  a  battery  of  considerable 
strength,  including  two  6-inch  rifles  and  six  5-inch 
rapid-fire  guns.  Her  light  draught  adapts  her  for 
river  work. 

The  unprotected  cruisers  of  the  United  States  are 
three  in  number,  the  DETROIT,  the  MARBLEHEAD,  and 
the  MONTGOMERY,  all  authorized  in  1888  and  com- 
pleted in  1893  and  1894.  They  are  sister  ships,  two 
hundred  and  fifty-seven  feet  long,  thirty-seven  feet 
wide,  and  of  fourteen  feet  seven  inches  draught;  their 
displacement  2089  tons,  horse-power  over  5000,  and 
respective  speeds  18.71,  18.44,  and  I9-°5  knots  per 
hour.  They  have  a  thin  protective  and  water-tight 
deck  of  T\-inch  steel  on  flat  and  y^-inch  on  slopes. 
Their  armament  consists  of  ten  5-inch,  six  6-pounder, 
and  two  I -pounder  rapid-fire  guns,  two  machine-guns, 
one  field-gun,  and  two  torpedo-tubes. 

These  vessels  rely  for  protection  upon  their  cellu- 
lose packing  and  coal-bunkers,  their  thin  water-tight 
plating,  and  their  numerous  compartments.  While 
the  shot  of  an  enemy  may  easily  pierce  the  sides  or 
the  deck,  a  dangerous  inflow  of  water  is  likely  to  be 
prevented  by  these  protective  devices.  The  vessel 
may  be  pierced  even  below  the  load-line  without 
flooding  the  compartments  containing  the  engines, 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  239 

boilers,  and  magazines.  These  boats  are  provided 
with  very  roomy  accommodations  for  officers  and 
crew,  they  being  mainly  intended  for  long  cruises  on 
distant  stations. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

RAMS,    GUNBOATS,    AND    TORPEDO-BOATS. 

THE  ram,  an  instrument  of  warfare  which  has  done 
little  harm  to  vessels  of  war  except  as  the  result  of 
accident,  has  been  paid  considerable  attention  to  in 
American  warfare,  particularly  during  the  Civil  War. 
In  the  old  days  of  wooden  ships  little  or  no  use  was 
made  of  this  method  of  doing  injury,  the  danger  to 
the  attacking  vessel  being  about  equal  to  that  of  the 
vessel  assailed.  We  have  an  illustration  of  this  in  the 
recent  ramming  of  the  Columbia  by  a  British  mer- 
chant steamer.  The  cruiser  had  a  gaping  wound  torn 
in  her  side,  but  the  Foscolio  was  sent  to  the  bottom. 
This  accident,  however,  serves  to  show  the  terrific 
power  which  may  be  developed  by  the  ram.  Every 
effort  was  made  to  check  the  speed  of  the  Foscolio 
and  the  two  vessels  little  more  than  drifted  together. 
Had  the  Foscolio,  on  the  contrary,  been  provided  with 
a  ram  bow,  and  driven  at  speed  against  the  cruiser's 
side,  the  latter  would  undoubtedly  have  been  cut 
through  and  wounded  beyond  hope. 

While  iron  armor  protects  the  upper  sides  of  ves- 
sels, they  remain  vulnerable  below,  and  it  is  evident 
that  if  they  could  be  struck  a  hard  blow  under  water 


240  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

it  would  be  of  more  immediate  disastrous  effect  than 
all  the  shot  and  shell  that  can  be  poured  upon  them 
from  above.  Ram  bows  were,  therefore,  added  to  many 
of  our  vessels  during  the  Civil  War,  and  some  river 
craft  were  sunk  by  their  aid,  though  no  great  service 
was  done. 

In  foreign  navies  the  injury  done  by  the  ram  has 
mainly  been  the  result  of  accident.  The  British  vessel 
Vanguard  was  in  this  way  sunk  off  the  Irish  coast  by 
the  Iron  Duke,  and  the  German  Grosser  Kurfurst  off 
Folkestone  by  a  companion  vessel.  In  1893  the  Brit- 
ish ship  Camperdown  ran  into  and  sunk  the  Victoria 
in  the  Mediterranean,  with  all  her  crew.  In  war,  how- 
ever, the  ram  has  proved  singularly  inefficient.  In  the 
war  between  Chili  and  Peru,  in  1879,  tne  Huascar  at- 
tempted to  ram  the  Esmeralda,  a  vessel  which  lay  dis- 
abled and  motionless  before  her.  Three  attempts  were 
made  before  success  was  attained.  In  a  later  action  two 
Chilian  ironclads  made  several  attempts  to  ram  the 
Huascar,  but  failed.  At  the  battle  of  Lissa,  between 
the  Austrian  and  Italian  fleets,  many  efforts  were 
made  to  ram,  yet  only  one  succeeded,  and  that  only 
through  an  injury  to  the  rudder  of  the  vessel  sunk. 
In  recent  warfare  the  ram  has  become  still  more  use- 
less, battles  being  fought  at  a  greater  distance  than  of 
old,  while  in  case  of  a  near  approach  the  torpedo-tube 
can  be  trusted  as  a  safer  and  more  efficient  weapon  of 
attack. 

Only  two  vessels  have  been  built  expressly  as  rams, 
the  British  Polyphemus  and  the  American  Katahdin, 
neither  of  which  has  had  an  opportunity  to  demon- 
strate its  powers.  The  Polyphemus  was  begun  in 
1878  and  completed  in  1882.  It  is  a  low-hulled  vessel, 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  241 

the  exposed  portion  being  like  a  turtle's  back,  and 
covered  with  thin  armor  to  deflect  any  projectile  that 
may  strike  it.  It  carries  only  a  few  light  guns,  and 
possesses  high  speed,  a  powerful  ram,  and  a  torpedo 
equipment.  This  vessel  is  of  2500  tons  displacement 
and  eighteen  knots  speed. 

The  KATAHDIN,  a  similar  vessel  in  the  American 
navy,  was  ordered  in  1889  and  commissioned  in  1896. 
It  is  of  2155  tons  displacement  and  16.11  knots  speed, 
is  two  hundred  and  fifty-one  feet  long,  forty-three  feet 
five  inches  wide,  and  sits  very  low  in  the  water,  the 
height  above  the  water-line  being  six  feet.  The  lower 
portion  of  the  hull  is  dish-shaped,  the  upper  part 
curved,  the  curve  beginning  six  inches  below  the 
water-line.  This  upper  portion  is  armor-plated,  the 
thickness  tapering  from  six  inches  at  the  water-line  to 
two  inches  at  the  crown  of  the  deck.  Above  the  deck 
stand  a  conning-tower,  a  smoke-stack  and  ventila- 
tors, and  two  light  barbettes  carrying  6-pounder  guns. 
The  ram  is  of  cast  steel,  about  fourteen  tons  in  weight, 
and  so  braced  that  the  force  of  the  blow  will  be  dis- 
tributed throughout  the  whole  vessel,  while  the  deck 
projects  over  the  hull  in  a  knife-edge  that  would  cut 
deeply  into  any  ship  assailed.  No  vessel  ever  built 
could  withstand  a  blow  from  this  ramming  machine 
could  she  have  an  opportunity  to  fling  her  two  thou- 
sand tons  of  steel  and  iron  against  its  sides  at  a  speed 
of  over  eighteen  miles  an  hour.  But  that  she  will  ever 
have  an  opportunity  to  display  her  prowess  in  war  is 
exceedingly  problematical. 

The  United  States  navy  possesses  another  vessel  of 
unique  design  which  promises  to  be  more  serviceable 
in  action  than  the  Katahdin,  its  destructive  powers 

16 


242  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

being  in  the  direction  of  those  of  the  torpedo-boats. 
This  is  the  dynamite  gunboat  VESUVIUS,  built  for  the 
utilization  of  the  dynamite  gun,  a  weapon  developed 
by  Lieutenant  Zalinski,  whose  powers  have  been 
proved  on  land,  but  await  an  opportunity  to  be  de- 
monstrated at  sea.  This  boat,  authorized  in  1886,  and 
built  by  the  Cramps,  was  first  commissioned  on  June 
7,  1890,  and  is  at  present  with  Admiral  Sampson's 
fleet,  her  great  speed  rendering  her  useful  as  a  de- 
spatch-boat, while  she  awaits  an  opportunity  to  show 
the  powers  of  her  peculiar  weapon  of  assault. 

The  Vesuvius  is  a  long,  low,  narrow  vessel,  with  a 
bow  like  a  knife-blade.  She  is  of  but  929  tons  dis- 
placement, but  has  engines  of  3795  horse-power  and 
a  speed  of  21.42  knots  per  hour.  From  the  deck  near 
her  bow  project,  at  an  angle  of  elevation  of  18  degrees, 
three  thin  iron  tubes,  the  greater  part  of  whose  fifty- 
four  feet  of  length  lies  below  the  deck.  They  are  of 
fifteen  inches  diameter.  The  shell  which  these  guns 
are  designed  to  throw  is  charged  with  dynamite, 
and  that  this  dangerous  substance  may  not  be  ex- 
ploded in  the  gun  by  the  shock  of  a  powder  discharge, 
compressed  air  is  used  at  a  pressure  of  one  thousand 
pounds  to  the  square  inch.  The  firing  tubes  are  made 
of  thin  cast  iron,  the  pressure  on  them  being  light. 
They  are  capable  of  throwing  a  25o-pound  charge  of 
dynamite  a  distance  of  a  mile  and  a  half. 

The  shell  for  this  gun  is  fourteen  and  three-quarters 
inches  in  diameter  and  about  seven  feet  in  length.  It 
is  fitted  at  its  rear  with  spiral  vanes,  whose  rotation 
serves  to  guide  its  flight  through  the  air.  Ten  of  these 
projectiles  are  provided  for  each  gun,  making  a  com- 
plement of  thirty  in  all.  The  tube  is  fixed  in  position 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  243 

and  the  aiming  depends  upon  the  movement  of  the 
vessel,  the  officer  in  the  conning-tower  having  the  ship 
and  her  guns  under  his  control  and  training  the  ship 
instead  of  the  gun  upon  the  foe.  Practically  the  whole 
vessel  acts  the  part  of  a  floating  carriage  for  her  guns. 

The  dynamite  cartridge  as  yet  has  been  tried  only 
in  experiment.  It  has  been  proved  that  the  gun  can 
be  fired  in  safety,  and  its  projectile  thrown  with  a 
fair  degree  of  accuracy.  In  government  trials  an  old 
schooner,  moored  at  a  mile  distance,  was  completely 
wrecked  by  fifty-pound  charges  thrown  from  an  8- 
inch  gun.  It  is  believed  that  a  shell  from  the  Vesu- 
vius, exploding  under  water,  would  destroy  a  ship 
twenty  or  more  feet  away,  but  a  dread  exists  that  it 
might  explode  in  the  gun,  and  produce  its  effect  on  the 
Vesuvius  herself. 

A  second  dynamite  boat  has  come  into  the  posses- 
sion of  the  government  in  the  purchase  of  the  Nic- 
theroy,  now  the  Buffalo,  from  the  Brazilian  govern- 
ment. This  boat  was  armed  with  a  dynamite  gun  in 
the  recent  Brazilian  war,  though  it  will  probably  be 
used  as  an  ordinary  gunboat  in  its  present  service. 

The  DOLPHIN,  a  steel  despatch-boat,  built  in  1883 
at  the  John  Roach  yard,  Chester,  Pennsylvania,  is  of 
two  hundred  and  forty  feet  length  and  thirty-two  feet 
breadth,  driven  by  a  single-screw  engine  of  2253  horse- 
power, and  capable  of  a  speed  of  15.5  knots.  She 
formed  part  of  Admiral  Sampson's  fleet  in  the  war 
with  Spain,  carrying  an  armament  of  two  4-inch  and 
two  6-pounder  rapid-fire  guns,  with  two  Hotchkiss 
and  two  Catling  machine-guns. 

At  the  opening  of  the  year  1898  the  United  States 
possessed  sixteen  gunboats.  These  have  been  added 


244  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

to  with  considerable  rapidity,  by  the  purchase  and 
conversion  of  yachts  and  other  suitable  craft,  until  the 
fleet  of  these  serviceable  craft  has  been  much  in- 
creased. This  "mosquito  fleet,"  as  it  is  irreverently 
termed,  was  very  usefully  employed  during  the  war 
with  Spain  in  blockading  the  Cuban  ports,  releasing 
the  great  ships  of  war  for  duty  in  more  important 
fields.  The  largest  of  our  gunboats  are  the  YORK- 
TOWN,  the  BENNINGTON,  the  CONCORD,  and  the 
MACHIAS,  the  first  three  of  1710,  the  last  of  1777  tons 
displacement.  These  have  speeds  of  15.5  to  17.5 
knots,  have  thin  water-tight  steel  decks,  and  carry 
six  6-inch  rifled  guns,  with  the  exception  of  the 
Machias,  whose  main  armament  consists  of  eight  4- 
inch  rapid-fire  guns.  Three  others  of  later  date  (1893), 
the  HELENA,  the  NASHVILLE,  and  the  WILMINGTON, 
are  of  lighter  weight  and  less  draught,  the  sister  ships 
Helena  and  Wilmington  drawing  but  nine  feet  of 
water,  and  the  Nashville  eleven.  The  light  draught 
of  the  Helena  and  her  consort  is  due  to  the  fact  that 
they  were  constructed  with  a  view  to  service  on  the 
rivers  of  China.  They  are  about  two  hundred  and 
fifty  feet  long  and  forty  feet  beam,  these  dimensions, 
in  common  with  their  nine  feet  draught,  being  given 
in  view  of  their  proposed  river  service.  They  each 
carry  a  military  mast,  well  provided  with  firing-tops, 
and  have  elevated  conning-towers. 

A  Japanese  officer  suggested  that  the  banks  of  the 
Yellow  River  of  China  were  so  high  that  they  could 
not  be  seen  over  except  from  a  considerable  eleva- 
tion, and  in  response  to  this  hint  the  boats  in  question 
were  supplied  with  a  curious  combination  of  conning- 
tower  and  military  mast.  This  mast  is  double,  con- 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  245 

sisting  of  an  outer  iron  tube  of  six  feet  and  an  inner 
one  of  two  feet  diameter.  Between  them  ascends  a 
spiral  staircase,  running  to  the  conning-tower,  which 
is  built  under  and  partly  supports  the  lower  top.  The 
tower,  nearly  fifty  feet  high,  stands  out  from  the  mast, 
and  contains  all  necessary  appliances  for  steering  and 
controlling  the  ship,  while  windows  with  small  open- 
ings give  an  outlook  over  the  surrounding  country. 
The  fighting-top  above  is  of  fourteen  feet  diameter, 
and  above  it  is  an  electric-light  top  and  a  second  fight- 
ing-top of  six  feet  diameter.  These  boats  carry  eight 
4-inch  rapid-fire  guns  and  a  secondary  battery  of  four 
6-pounder  and  two  I -pounder  rapid-fire  and  two  Colt 
machine-guns,  with  a  field-gun  for  use  by  landing 
parties. 

The  remaining  gunboats  existing  previous  to  1898 
include  the  BANCROFT,  the  CASTINE,  and  the  PETREL, 
the  last  named  the  smallest  of  all,  its  displacement 
being  892  tons.  There  are  six  others  of  a  different 
construction,  being  what  are  known  as  composite  gun- 
boats. The  ordinary  iron  or  steel  war-ship  has  one 
constant  source  of  trouble,  the  accumulation  of  bar- 
nacles and  marine  vegetation,  which  gather  thickly  on 
their  bottoms,  checking  their  speed  and  demanding 
frequent  docking,  with  its  cost  and  loss  of  time.  The 
composite  gunboat  is  designed  to  overcome  this 
trouble,  by  the  use  of  wooden  planking  to  form  the 
under-water  hull.  On  this  a  sheathing  of  copper  is 
placed,  since  the  marine  animals  and  plants  avoid  this 
metal.  If  greater  strength  is  required,  there  may  be 
an  inner  sheathing  of  steel,  the  whole  being  joined 
together  by  composition  bolts  to  prevent  galvanic 
action.  Vessels  of  this  class  will  be  of  great  utility 


246  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

in  stations  remote  from  docks,  such  as  the  Alaskan 
rivers  and  seas. 

These  boats  were  authorized  in  1895,  f°ur  of  them, 
the  ANNAPOLIS,  NEWPORT,  PRINCETON,  and  VICKS- 
BURG,  having  full  sail  power  in  addition  to  their  single 
screw;  the  two  others,  the  MARIETTA  and  the  WHEEL- 
ING, having  twin  screws  driven  by  about  the  same 
power,  and  carrying  canvas  enough  only  to  steady 
them  in  a  sea-way.  They  carry  only  rapid-fire  guns, 
each  being  armed  with  six  4-inch,  four  6-pounder, 
and  two  i -pounder  guns  of  this  character,  a  Colt 
machine-gun,  and  a  field-gun. 

The  gunboats  are  especially  adapted  for  service  on 
inland  waters,  alike  of  home  and  foreign  stations. 
Their  defensive  power  is  small,  their  only  armor  being 
a  light  protective  deck,  while  even  this  is  omitted  in 
the  composite  boats.  They  have  good  offensive 
powers,  however,  their  batteries,  while  of  small  caliber, 
being  of  high  power.  Their  speed  varies  from  twelve 
to  over  seventeen  knots,  while  their  light  draught  en- 
ables them  to  cruise  in  waters  which  heavier  vessels 
cannot  enter,  and  provides  a  means  of  escape  when 
chased  by  heavier  craft.  Nine  of  these  vessels  have 
been  built  since  1893,  foreshadowing,  as  some  think, 
a  more  active  foreign  policy,  as  ships  of  this  class  are 
likely  to  be  of  special  service  in  such  foreign  stations 
as  the  Asiatic,  where  rivers  too  shallow  for  even  our 
smallest  cruisers  may  need  to  be  ascended.  With  the 
fleet  added  in  1898  by  purchase,  the  United  States 
navy  is  now  fairly  well  provided  with  vessels  of  this 
class. 

There  is  another  type  of  war-vessels,  specially 
modern,  now  to  be  named,  the  torpedo-boat,  a  class 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 


247 


of  swift,  inconspicuous,  daring,  and  threatening  vessels 
which  have  become  the  unceasing  dread  of  naval 
officers, — less  from  their  actual  performance  than  from 
their  frightful  possibilities.  The  use  of  the  torpedo  in 
warfare,  though  of  much  earlier  origin,  was  first  fairly 
inaugurated  in  the  American  Civil  War,  developing 
into  the  torpedo-boat  in  the  closing  years  of  this  con- 
flict. The  Housatonic  and  the  Albemarle  were  its 
victims  in  this  war,  each  side  losing  one  vessel  through 
an  attack  by  this  dreaded  foe. 

These  early  boats  carried  their  torpedoes  at  the  end 
of  a  spar,  the  torpedo  exploding  by  contact.  The 
danger  to  the  assailant  in  an  attack  by  such  a  vessel 
set  the  brains  of  inventors  to  work,  and  there  were 
finally  evolved  several  kinds  of  self-moving  torpedoes, 
which  could  be  put  in  motion  at  a  distance  from  a 
hostile  ship  and  be  depended  upon  to  go  straight  to 
their  mark.  A  description  of  these  "  automobile"  tor- 
pedoes must  be  left  for  a  later  chapter,  the  torpedo- 
boat  being  all  that  we  are  concerned  with  here. 

The  few  performances  with  torpedo-boats  during 
the  Civil  War  set  all  European  naval  authorities  to 
thinking,  and  while  the  United  States  rested  content 
with  the  lesson  it  had  taught,  the  nations  beyond  the 
Atlantic  were  busily  engaged  in  developing  this  new 
species  of  war-craft.  What  was  needed  was  a  boat  of 
great  speed,  almost  noiseless  in  movement,  and  so  low 
in  the  water  and  dull  in  color  as  to  be  nearly  invisible, 
the  purpose  being  to  approach  near  enough  unseen  to 
discharge  a  torpedo  with  effect  and  then  ,glide  hastily 
and  swiftly  away.  By  1877  tne  torpedo-boat  had 
grown  to  a  craft  of  from  eighty-five  to  one  hundred 
feet  in  length  and  had  gained  a  speed  of  from  eighteen 


248  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

to  twenty-one  knots,  their  engines  being  of  high  power 
for  vessels  of  their  size. 

Then  arose  a  new  idea.  Before  the  torpedo-boat 
had  succeeded  in  doing  any  of  the  work  of  destruction 
for  which  it  was  designed,  it  became  itself  an  object 
for  destruction,  and  a  series  of  larger  and  swifter  boats 
came  into  existence,  under  the  title  of  torpedo-boat 
destroyers,  or  simply  destroyers,  with  the  double  mis- 
sion of  running  down  and  destroying  the  torpedo- 
boats  of  an  enemy,  or  on  occasion  serving  as  torpedo- 
boats  themselves. 

The  idea  of  building  destroyers  ("torpedo-boat 
catchers"  they  were  first  called)  arose  in  England  in 
1885,  ft  being  proposed  to  give  them  about  twenty 
knots  of  speed.  These  were  ill-named,  as  many  then 
existing  torpedo-boats  could  outstrip  them,  and  at- 
tention was  soon  paid  to  increasing  their  speed,  en- 
gines of  enormous  power  for  such  small  boats  being 
gradually  introduced.  The  Ariete,  built  by  Thorny- 
croft  in  1887  for  the  Spanish  navy,  reached  the  then 
astonishing  speed  of  twenty-six  knots.  The  Daring, 
built  by  the  same  builder  for  the  British  navy  in  1893, 
showed  a  speed  of  twenty-nine  knots,  and  in  1895  the 
Sokol,  built  in  England  for  the  Russian  government, 
surpassed  the  thirty-knot  mark.  The  later  British 
torpedo-boat  destroyer  Desperate  is  credited  with 
30.5  knots,  and  the  Turbinia,  built  at  the  Thorny  croft 
yard  in  1897,  is  said  to  have  attained  the  extraordinary 
speed  of  thirty-four  knots.  In  this  boat  the  recently 
invented  steam-turbine  is  used,  in  which  the  impact 
of  steam  upon  the  face  of  vans  turns  the  screw-shaft, 
instead  of  steam-pressure  being  employed,  as  in  ordi- 
nary engines.  The  Turbinia  is  too  light  and  small  to 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  249 

be  of  service  in  war,  but  a  larger  boat  has  been  ordered 
in  which  the  steam-turbine  and  the  three  propellers 
of  this  little  racer  are  to  be  reproduced. 

The  United  States  was  slow  in  taking  part  in  this 
competition,  so  actively  pursued  abroad,  only  one  tor- 
pedo-boat, the  Gushing,  being  ordered  before  1890,  in 
which  year  it  came  into  service.  A  second,  the  Erics- 
son, was  authorized  in  1891,  and  then  the  government 
rested  until  1894.  Since  then  it  has  shown  activity  in 
this  direction,  twenty-two  of  these  boats  having  been 
authorized  prior  to  July  I,  1897.  The  speed  of  these 
boats  increased  from  the  Gushing,  of  22.5  knots,  suc- 
cessively to  24.5  in  the  Rodgers,  the  Winslow,  and 
the  Foote,  and  28.6  in  the  Porter,  while  of  those  not 
yet  in  service  several  are  estimated  at  30  and  30.5 
knots.  The  largest  ordered  is  the  Stringham,  two 
hundred  and  twenty-five  feet  long,  twenty-two  feet 
wide,  and  six  feet  six  inches  draught,  with  340  tons 
displacement,  an  estimated  power  of  7200  horse,  and 
an  estimated  speed  of  thirty  knots. 

The  exigencies  of  the  year  1898  caused  the  ordering 
of  a  large  number  of  these  boats,  some  of  them  bearing 
the  title  of  torpedo-boats,  one  of  their  requisites  being 
that  they  should  make  a  high  speed  in  a  moderate  sea- 
way, while  to  sixteen  of  them  has  been  given  the 
composite  title  of  "  destroyers  of  torpedo-boat  de- 
stroyers," these  being  required  to  make  a  high  speed 
in  a  heavy  sea-way.  These  titles  indicate  a  remark- 
able development  in  this  direction.  First  came  the 
torpedo,  then  the  torpedo-boat,  then  the  torpedo- 
boat  destroyer,  and  now  we  have  the  destroyer  of 
the  destroyer.  It  is  not  easy  to  say  where  this  curi- 
ous line  of  evolution  will  end,  or  even  when  the  ulti- 


250  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

mate  of  speed  will  be  attained,  though  it  will  scarcely 
be  possible  to  use  a  higher  horse-power  in  a  vessel  of 
this  size  or  drive  any  boat  much  more  rapidly  through 
the  waves. 

The  evolution  of  the  torpedo-boat  has  found  its 
counterpart  in  the  development  of  the  search-light 
and  the  rapid-fire  gun,  the  former  constantly  flinging 
its  powerful  ray  over  the  waters  in  any  imperilled  lo- 
cality, and  the  latter  pouring  such  a  stream  of  balls 
upon  any  detected  torpedo-boat  that  its  only  safety 
from  sudden  doom  lies  in  instant  flight.  As  a  result 
this  dreaded  instrument  of  war  has  been  largely  dis- 
armed, and  the  torpedo-boat  has  not  yet  been  able  to 
repay  in  results  the  labor  bestowed  upon  it. 

Meanwhile,  the  use  of  the  torpedo-tube  has  widely 
extended.  All  our  battle-ships  are  provided  with 
tubes,  from  two  to  four  in  number,  for  the  discharge 
of  these  dangerous  projectiles,  the  same  is  the  case 
with  many  of  the  cruisers,  and  one  of  our  gunboats, 
the  Bancroft,  is  similarly  provided.  They  seem  much 
less  likely  to  be  of  use  in  these  vessels  than  in  those 
built  expressly  to  carry  them,  and  up  to  the  present 
time  the  torpedo,  as  a  missile  of  war,  can  hardly  be 
said  to  have  justified  its  existence. 

A  brief  description  of  some  of  our  torpedo-boats 
comes  here  properly  into  play.  One  of  the  earliest  of 
these  went  to  a  muddy  grave  in  common  with  the 
Maine  in  Havana  harbor.  This  was  a  little  craft, 
about  sixty  feet  long  by  nine  feet  beam,  which  was 
carried  on  the  deck  of  the  Maine  ready  to  be  launched 
when  occasion  demanded.  With  a  full  supply  of  coal 
and  stores  it  weighed  only  fifteen  tons,  its  sides  being 
made  of  very  thin  steel.  Its  bows  carried  a  torpedo- 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  251 

tube  adapted  to  the  Whitehead  torpedo,  while  on  its 
after-deck  was  a  I -pounder  rapid-fire  gun.  Whatever 
possibilities  for  mischief  there  might  have  been  in  this 
diminutive  craft  were  never  developed,  the  mine 
which  wrecked  the  Maine  ending  the  existence  of  her 
deck-borne  consort  at  the  same  time. 

The  Porter,  one  of  the  torpedo-boats  of  Admiral 
Sampson's  fleet  in  Cuban  waters,  first  commissioned 
in  February,  1897,  is  a  craft  of  190  tons  burden  and 
4000  horse-power.  Her  trial  speed  was  28.63  knots, 
a  rate  of  motion  equivalent  to  about  thirty-three  miles 
an  hour.  When  this  boat  is  driven  at  top  speed  her 
stern  settles  and  her  bow  lifts,  until  the  keel  is  visible 
above  the  water  for  five  or  six  feet  back  from  the  stem. 
This  is  a  common  occurrence  with  light-draught  boats 
when  driven  at  high  speed.  The  Porter  carries  three 
torpedo-tubes,  one  on  each  side  and  a  third  at  the 
stern,  while  four  I -pounder  rapid-fire  guns  complete 
her  armament. 

In  these  boats  the  torpedo-tube  or  gun  stands  ex- 
posed on  the  deck,  pivoted  so  that  it  may  be  trained 
on  the  mark  before  firing.  No  attempt  is  made  to 
protect  the  hulls  by  armor.  They  are  of  the  lightest 
construction,  none  of  their  plates  being  over  one- 
fourth  of  an  inch  thick.  Their  sole  trust  is  in  their 
speed  and  the  covert  character  of  their  attack. 

The  torpedo-boat  delivers  its  attack  at  night  and 
by  stealth.  Pains  are  taken  to  suppress  all  sparks 
from  the  smoke-stacks.  No  lights  are  shown  any- 
where. The  little  vessel  is  painted  as  near  the  color  of 
the  sea  as  available,  to  avoid  detection.  If  possible,  she 
comes  within  an  eighth  of  a  mile  of  her  enemy  before 
launching  a  torpedo,  and  then  darts  away  in  a  hurry. 


252  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

In  anticipation  of  such  an  attempt  a  big  war-vessel  at 
night,  when  at  anchor,  employs  powerful  search-lights 
in  her  lookout.  Defence  by  means  of  wire  netting 
stretched  around  the  ship  is  no  longer  attempted. 
The  device  is  not  proof  against  torpedoes. 

When  within  range  the  little  craft  swings  to  port 
or  starboard  and  launches  a  death-dealing  missile 
upon  the  foe.  In  case  of  failure  the  stern  tube  can 
send  another  of  these  messengers  of  destruction.  The 
work  of  the  torpedo-boat  is  that  of  the  forlorn  hope. 
If  discovered  at  her  work  she  is  sure  to  be  greeted 
with  a  rain  of  bullets  and  shells  that  will  pierce  her 
thin  sides  as  if  made  of  paper,  and  her  crew  take  their 
lives  in  their  hands  when  they  set  forth  upon  their 
errand  of  death. 

The  torpedo-boat  destroyer  has  a  somewhat  dif- 
ferent mission.  Her  duty  is  a  double  one,  to  attack 
an  enemy's  ship  when  opportunity  serves,  and  pri- 
marily to  assail  the  torpedo-boats  of  the  foe,  trusting 
for  success  to  her  greater  weight  and  speed.  For  this 
purpose  she  is  adapted  to  discharge  a  projectile  in  ad- 
vance, as  she  chases  an  adversary  through  the  waves. 
Of  boats  of  this  class  in  our  navy  may  be  named  the 
Bailey,  a  craft  authorized  in  1897,  two  hundred  and  five 
feet  long,  nineteen  feet  wide,  and  of  six  feet  draught. 
She  is  of  235  tons  displacement,  her  power  being  esti- 
mated at  5600  horse,  and  her  speed  at  thirty  knots, 
though  a  higher  speed  may  be  developed.  Her  two 
1 8-inch  torpedo-tubes  are  supplemented  by  four  6- 
pounder  rapid-fire  guns.  Of  these  guns,  two  are 
mounted  on  the  main  deck  and  two  on  the  forward 
and  aft  conning-towers,  the  latter  having  nearly  an 
all-round  fire. 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  253 

A  distinguishing  characteristic  of  these  boats  is 
their  immense  power  as  compared  with  their  size. 
The  engines  of  the  Bailey,  with  her  235  tons  displace- 
ment, will  have  more  than  half  the  power  of  some 
ocean  packets  of  8000  tons.  The  Stringham,  of  7200 
horse-power,  will  make  a  still  nearer  approach.  Speed 
is  the  one  essential  requisite,  and  everything  else  is 
subordinated  to  this.  The  crew,  about  thirty  in  num- 
ber, will  be  obliged  to  accommodate  themselves  in 
a  contracted  space,  the  four  cylinder  triple-expan- 
sion engines,  four  boilers,  and  two  fire-rooms  taking 
up  a  lion's  share  of  the  under-deck  room,  while  a 
large  share  of  space  must  be  given  to  the  coal, 
of  which  sufficient  will  be  provided  to  enable  the 
Bailey,  when  not  driven  at  full  speed,  to  steam  3000 
knots. 

At  the  approach  of  war  with  Spain  it  quickly  be- 
came evident  that  a  larger  fleet  might  be  needed,  and 
active  efforts  were  made  to  add  to  our  navy  by  pur- 
chase, four  cruisers  and  two  torpedo-boats  being  pur- 
chased abroad,  while  a  considerable  number  of  vessels 
were  obtained  at  home  to  serve  as  an  auxiliary  fleet. 
Those  include  colliers,  yachts  converted  into  gun- 
boats, tugs  utilized  as  scout-boats,  and  a  variety  of 
larger  craft  which  were  quickly  adapted  as  cruisers. 
Chief  among  these  are  the  four  great  Atlantic  steamers 
of  the  International  Navigation  Company's  line,  the 
St.  Louis,  St.  Paul,  Paris,  and  New  York.  Of  these 
the  former  two,  built  at  Philadelphia  by  the  Cramps, 
retain  their  names,  while  the  Paris  and  the  New  York, 
of  foreign  build,  are  now  known  respectively  as  the 
Yale  and  the  Harvard.  These  great  steamships  have 
few  rivals  in  size  and  speed  upon  the  ocean  waters,  their 


254  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

tonnage  equalling  that  of  our  largest  battle-ships  and 
their  speed  ranging  from  twenty  to  twenty-one  knots. 
Though  not  armored,  and  unfit  to  fight  any  battle- 
ship or  strong  cruiser,  as  ocean  scouts  they  are  in- 
valuable, while  their  powers  of  offence  are  not  to  be 
despised,  the  first  two  named  having  batteries  of 
twelve  6-inch  rapid-fire  guns,  and  the  last  two  an 
equal  number  of  5-inch  guns. 

To  these  must  be  added  four  other  Atlantic  passen- 
ger steamers,  renamed  the  Yankee,  Prairie,  Dixie,  and 
Yosemite,  of  4660  tons  and  fourteen  knots  of  speed, 
their  armament  being  six  6-pounder  rapid-fire  guns. 
Other  subsidized  vessels  have  been  adapted  to  special 
purposes.  For  instance,  the  Illinois,  of  the  American 
line,  has  been  converted  into  a  refrigerator  vessel, 
and  two  other  vessels,  the  Juniata  and  the  Niagara, 
are  now  utilized  as  repair  ships,  an  important  service 
to  which  others  will  be  adapted. 

The  repair  ship  seems  to  be  a  new  idea,  a  product 
of  the  universal  American  genius.  Though  armed 
sufficiently  for  self-defence,  these  vessels  have  no 
mission  of  offence,  their  purpose  being  to  attend  a 
fleet,  and,  in  case  of  injury  of  minor  character  during 
an  engagement,  to  make  repairs  upon  the  spot. 
These  may  often  be  completed  in  time  to  allow  the 
wounded  ship  to  return  to  the  fight,  or  if  the  hurts 
be  more  serious  the  ships  may  be  repaired  after  the 
battle,  so  as  to  avoid  the  necessity  of  weakening  the 
fleet  by  sending  them  to  harbor  for  repairs.  For  this 
purpose,  the  repair  ships  are  provided  with  all  the  ma- 
terials for  rapid  and  effective  work,  whether  the  injury 
be  to  engines,  turning-gear,  or  other  department  of 
the  ship,  while  their  crews  are  made  up  of  skilled 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  255 

mechanics,  capable  of  handling  every  part  of  the  in- 
tricate make-up  of  a  modern  ship  of  war. 

Another  new  idea  of  recent  development  is  Ijhe  am- 
bulance ship,  a  craft  whose  mission  is  one  of  mercy  and 
relief,  and  which  plays  the  part  taken  by  the  Sanitary 
Commission  during  our  Civil  War.  There  are  two  of 
these  ships  now  with  the  fleets,  known  respectively  as 
the  Solace  and  the  Relief,  fitted  up  with  the  require- 
ments of  hospital  work,  and  ready  to  take  on  board 
the  wounded  from  an  engagement  and  to  provide 
them  with  a  degree  of  comfort  and  care  that  they 
could  not  obtain  on  board  a  battle-ship.  The  idea  is 
a  happy  one,  and  many  valuable  lives  may  be  saved 
by  the  presence  of  these  floating  sanitariums,  the  main 
purpose  of  which  is  to  convey  the  sick  and  wounded 
to  hospitals  in  salubrious  situations  on  shore,  careful 
attention  being  given  to  their  wants  during  the  voyage. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

THE   SUBMARINE   TORPEDO-BOAT. 

FOR  the  first  idea  of  the  submarine  torpedo-boat  we 
must  go  back  to  the  Revolutionary  War.  This,  like 
so  many  conceptions  connected  with  the  navy,  was  of 
American  origin,  and  though  the  original  boat  of  this 
character  failed  in  its  mission,  it  showed  a  mechanical 
ingenuity  worthy  of  the  inventive  spirit  of  the  Ameri- 
can people. 


256  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

This  boat  made  its  appearance  in  1777,  as  the  in- 
vention of  a  highly  ingenious  mechanic,  a  citizen  of 
Saybrook,  Connecticut,  David  Bushnell  by  name.  It 
consisted  of  a  turtle-shaped  cask  large  enough  to  hold 
a  man  and  carry  a  torpedo  loaded  with  one  hundred 
and  fifty  pounds  of  powder,  mechanism  being  pro- 
vided by  which  this  could  be  fastened  to  the  wooden 
bottom  of  a  ship  and  fired  when  in  this  situation. 

The  cask  contained  air  enough  to  support  the  opera- 
tor for  thirty  minutes,  and  was  fitted  with  an  oar  for 
rowing  backward  or  forward,  a  rudder  for  steering, 
and  an  oar  at  the  top  which  was  expected  to  aid  in 
placing  the  craft  at  any  desired  depth.  A  valved  aper- 
ture at  the  bottom  admitted  water  when  trie  inmate 
wished  to  descend,  while  two  forcing-pumps  served  to 
eject  the  water  when  he  wished  to  rise.  Entrance  was 
made  at  the  top,  through  a  valve-like  door,  and  there 
was  a  ventilator  to  supply  fresh  air  when  on  the  sur- 
face. The  depth  attained  was  indicated  by  a  water- 
gauge,  and  a  compass  served  to  direct  the  course. 
Light  was  obtained  from  phosphorus  to  enable  the 
inmate  to  read  the  compass  and  gauge.  We  are  not 
told  how  the  supply  of  fresh  air  was  managed. 

The  arrangement  for  fixing  the  torpedo  was  equally 
ingenious.  The  operator  could  swim  so  low  on  the 
surface  as  to  approach  very  near  to  a  hostile  ship  in 
the  night  without  being  discovered.  Then,  sinking 
and  rowing  under  its  bottom,  he  was  able,  by  a  suitable 
piece  of  mechanism,  to  turn  a  wood-screw  and  drive 
it  into  the  wooden  hull.  To  the  screw  was  attached 
a  short  rope,  to  the  other  end  of  which  was  fastened 
the  torpedo  carried  on  the  rear  portion  of  the  craft. 
This  was  made  buoyant,  that  it  might  rise  against  the 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  257 

wood.  Within  it  was  a  clock,  set  to  run  a  fixed  time, 
and  then  to  release  a  lock  which  was  arranged  to  ex- 
plode the  powder.  By  that  time  the  daring  operator 
might  be  far  away. 

Bushnell  made  his  first  attempt  against  a  fifty-gun 
ship  lying  near  Governor's  Island,  in  New  York  har- 
bor. The  operator,  however,  failed  to  fix  4ie  wood- 
screw,  and  in  the  morning,  thinking  himself  dis- 
covered, he  cast  off  the  torpedo.  The  clock  ran  for 
an  hour,  when  the  affair  exploded  with  great  violence. 
He  made  two  other  attempts,  and  in  the  end  the  sub- 
marine boat  was  fired  upon  and  sunk.  He  subse- 
quently sought  to  blow  up  the  frigate  Cerberus,  from 
a  whale-boat  supplied  with  a  torpedo,  but  by  accident 
ran  foul  of  a  schooner,  which  was  blown  to  pieces, 
three  of  its  crew  being  killed. 

Bushnell's  last  effort  in  this  direction  has  become  a 
noted  historical  event,  since  it  gave  rise  to  the  famous 
"  Battle  of  the  kegs."  He  charged  several  kegs  with 
gunpowder,  so  fixed  that  they  would  explode  on 
touching  any  object,  and  set  them  afloat  in  December, 
1777,  on  the  Delaware,  above  the  English  shipping  at 
Philadelphia.  Being  unfamiliar  with  the  river,  and 
deceived  by  the  darkness  of  the  night,  he  set  his  kegs 
adrift  at  too  great  a  distance,  and  they  were  also  de- 
tained by  the  ice,  so  that  they  were  much  dispersed  on 
reaching  the  locality  of  the  shipping.  Day  had 
dawned,  and  one  of  these  kegs  was  taken  into  a  boat 
by  several  persons,  who  suffered  for  their  careless 
handling  by  its  exploding  in  their  midst.  It  was  this 
that  gave  the  British  the  lively  alarm  and  set  them  to 
the  active  effort  to  sink  these  dangerous  kegs  which 
were  celebrated  by  Hopkinson  in  his  humorous  verses. 

'7 


258  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

Robert  Fulton,  the  famous  American  inventor  of 
the  steamboat,  was  the  next  to  experiment  in  this 
direction.  The  submarine  boat  invented  by  him  was 
tried  in  1801  in  the  harbor  of  Brest,  France,  and  re- 
mained under  water  for  an  hour,  during  which  he 
guided  the  boat  with  ease.  As  the  French  declined 
to  purchase  the  invention,  he  tried  it  in  England  in 
1804,  but  found  as  little  encouragement  there.  He 
intended  it  as  a  torpedo-boat,  to  be  used  in  naval  war- 
fare, but  soon  abandoned  it  to  take  up  the  problem  of 
steam  navigation.  In  1814,  however,  during  the  war 
with  Great  Britain,  Fulton  suggested,  in  a  letter  to 
William  Jones,  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  the  use  of  a 
spar  torpedo-boat,  the  spar  to  strike  a  vessel's  side 
beneath  the  surface.  This  idea  was  not  utilized  until 
fifty  years  afterwards. 

The  above  are  not  given  as  the  only  examples  of 
submarine  boats.  A  boat  of  this  kind  was  tried  in 
England  as  long  ago  as  the  reign  of  James  I.,  the  in- 
vention of  a  Dutchman  named  Drebell,  whose  chief 
secret  was  the  use  of  a  liquid  "that  would  speedily 
restore  to  the  troubled  air  such  a  proportion  of  vital 
parts  as  would  make  it  again  for  a  good  while  fit  for 
respiration."  An  inventor  named  Day  lost  his  life  in 
a  descent  in  1774.  In  1859  a  Chicago  inventor  named 
Delaney  patented  a  boat  supplied  with  compressed  air 
for  breathing,  and  raised  or  lowered  in  the  water  by 
the  Bushnell  method  of  pumping  water  out  of  or  into 
a  suitable  tank. 

In  the  Civil  War  attempts  at  submarine  torpedo- 
boat  warfare  were  confined  to  the  Confederate  service. 
A  corps  of  artisans  was  organized  for  this  purpose,  and 
a  number  of  small  boats  were  built  which  were  named 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  259 

"  Davids,"  as  contrasted  with  the  "  Goliaths"  of  the 
blockading  fleets.  The  most  famous  of  these,  built 
at  Mobile  and  transported  to  Charleston,  was  about 
thirty-five  feet  long,  its  crew  numbering  nine,  of  whom 
eight  worked  the  propeller  by  hand  and  one  steered. 
It  was  claimed  to  be  able  to  navigate  under  water  for 
half  an  hour,  and  was  designed  to  pass  under  the  keel 
of  any  vessel  lying  at  anchor,  dragging  a  floating  tor- 
pedo, which  would  explode  on  striking  the  vessel's 
bottom. 

This  craft  had  an  eventful  career.  Built  in  1863, 
she  sank  at  her  wharf  in  Mobile  and  drowned  her 
original  crew.  She  was  raised  and  taken  to  Charles- 
ton, where,  one  night,  she  was  swamped  by  the  wash 
of  a  passing  steamer  and  again  sank  with  her  crew. 
Again  she  was  raised,  and  again  sank,  this  time  carry- 
ing six  men  to  the  depths.  It  would  naturally  be 
supposed  that  this  record  would  stand  in  the  way  of 
her  getting  a  new  crew,  but  the  water-dogs  of  Charles- 
ton were  not  to  be  deterred,  and  once  again";  after 
making  several  successful  submarine  dives,  the  David 
stuck  her  nose  into  the  mud  in  Stono  Inlet  and  all  on 
board  perished  for  want  of  air.  For  the  fourth  time 
she  was  raised,  and  now,  while  attempting  to  dive 
under  the  receiving  ship  Indian  Queen,  she  fouled  a 
cable  and  death  was  again  the  lot  of  her  crew. 

Raised  a  week  later,  Lieutenant  George  A.  Dixon, 
an  army  officer,  asked  General  Beauregard's  permis- 
sion to  try  her  against  the  Housatonic,  a  new  Union 
war-ship,  lying  in  the  North  Channel.  Beauregard 
consented  on  the  condition  that  she  should  be  used 
only  as  a  torpedo-boat,  her  submarine  record  being 
much  too  discouraging.  But  ill-fortune  clung  to  her 


2<5o  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

to  the  end,  though  she  went  to  the  depths  with  glory. 
Provided  with  a  spar  torpedo,  the  David  struck  the 
Housatonic  in  the  side,  knocking  a  hole  below  the 
water-line  through  which  the  war-vessel  filled  and 
went  to  the  bottom  in  four  minutes.  Five  of  her 
people  were  killed  or  drowned,  the  rest  escaping  by 
taking  to  the  rigging  or  being  rescued  by  boats.  As 
for  the  David,  she  vanished  with  all  on  board,  whether 
swamped  by  the  column  of  water  thrown  up  by  the 
torpedo  or  carried  down  by  the  suction  of  the  sinking 
vessel  will  never  be  known. 

The  recent  attack  on  the  difficult  problem  of  sub- 
marine navigation  for  war  purposes  yielded  no  im- 
portant results  until  1886,  when  Nordenfelt  built  a 
boat  at  Stockholm  which  could  be  run  under  water 
for  five  minutes  at  a  time.  He  built  several  others  of 
superior  performance,  though  their  use  of  steam- 
power  proved  a  disadvantage  in  many  ways.  Other 
sources  of  power  were  tried  by  later  inventors,  but  no 
satisfactory  result  was  attained  until  electricity  was  in- 
troduced. Electric  motors  have  been  used  in  all  late 
boats  of  this  kind.  Lieutenant  Peral,  of  the  Spanish 
navy,  invented  a  boat  in  1888,  named,  after  him,  the 
Peral,  which  attracted  much  attention  at  the  time.  It 
travelled  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  without  ex- 
hausting its  electric  storage  batteries,  and  rose  and 
sank  easily,  though  its  course  could  not  be  safely 
changed  under  water.  Its  air  supply  kept  good  for 
six  hours  at  a  time,  and  it  discharged  a  torpedo  at  a 
mark  four  hundred  metres  away  with  excellent  suc- 
cess. 

Two  French  boats,  the  Gymnote  and  the  Gouber, 
were  produced  about  the  same  time  and  gave  satis- 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  261 

factory  results,  though,  like  the  Peral,  they  had  to 
come  to  the  surface  whenever  they  wished  to  change 
their  course.  All  these  boats  could  follow  a  perfectly 
straight  route  under  water,  by  aid  of  the  gyroscope, 
but  could  not  turn  without  losing  all  knowledge  of 
their  direction.  The  Gouber  weighed  about  two  tons 
and  carried  a  torpedo  charged  with  one  hundred  and 
ten  pounds  of  dynamite.  In  a  trial  in  1889  two  men 
remained  sealed  up  in  her  for  eight  hours,  at  a  depth 
of  thirty-three  feet,  and  came  up  perfectly  fresh.  Their 
air  supply  would  have  lasted  twenty-five  hours.  A 
similar  boat  was  produced  in  England  in  1888,  the 
invention  of  P.  Waddington,  and  Russia  and  other 
countries  have  experimented  in  the  same  direction. 

The  attention  of  the  United  States  government  was 
directed  to  this  subject  in  1887,  in  which  year  the  Navy 
Department  issued  a  circular  offering  inducements  to 
inventors  to  produce  a  boat  of  this  kind  suitable  for 
naval  purposes.  The  principal  features  of  the  pro- 
posal were  that  the  boat  should  have  fifteen  knots  of 
speed  on  the  surface,  twelve  when  partly  submerged, 
and  eight  when  completely  sunk,  should  be  able  to 
run  for  thirty  hours  at  full  speed  on  the  surface,  and 
retain  power  sufficient  for  a  two  hours'  run  under 
water  at  eight  knots.  She  should  be  able  to  turn 
within  four  times  her  length  without  reversing  her 
engines,  sink  out  of  sight  in  thirty  seconds,  and  be 
strong  enough  to  bear  the  water  pressure  at  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  feet  depth.  An  air  supply  sufficient  for 
twelve  hours  was  demanded,  and  the  temperature  was 
required  to  be  kept  down  to  100°  F.  The  maximum 
weight  was  to  be  two  hundred  tons,  but  about  ninety 
was  considered  most  desirable. 


262  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

A  number  of  boats  have  been  offered  in  response 
to  these  proposals,  one  of  the  most  interesting  of  which 
is  the  invention  of  Mr.  George  C.  Baker,  of  Chicago. 
This  craft,  tried  on  Lake  Michigan  in  1892  and  later, 
has  a  displacement  of  about  seventy-five  tons,  and 
when  running  on  the  surface  at  normal  draught  shows 
two  feet  of  the  crown  of  her  hull  above  water.  The 
shell  is  of  wood  six  inches  thick  covered  by  one  inch 
sheathing  of  metal.  The  outside  length  is  forty  feet, 
the  interior  dimensions  thirteen  feet  depth  and  eight 
feet  width.  Her  power  is  derived  from  a  storage  bat- 
tery, charged  on  board  by  a  dynamo  driven  by  steam- 
power.  When  the  charge  is  completed,  the  fire  is 
smothered  by  closing  the  air-tight  furnace  doors,  the 
smoke-stack  drawn  down  into  the  boat,  and  the 
dynamo  reversed  to  run  as  a  motor.  The  conning- 
tower  has  plate-glass  windows  on  its  sides  and  at  top, 
and  serves  as  a  man-hole  for  entering  the  boat. 

For  the  management  of  the  boat  under  water  the 
propeller  screws  are  chiefly  depended  upon.  Water  is 
admitted  sufficient  to  make  the  buoyancy  of  the  boat 
equal  that  of  the  water,  and  the  rising  and  sinking 
are  controlled  by  setting  the  screws  at  an  angle  with 
the  horizontal  plane.  The  electric  plant  consists  of  a 
fifty  horse-power  motor  driven  by  two  hundred  and 
thirty-two  Woodward  storage  cells.  This  craft  is 
adapted  to  carry  two  men,  the  pilot  and  his  assistant, 
who  have  remained  more  than  two  hours  under  water 
at  a  time.  The  boat  is  controlled  by  two  wheels,  one 
to  set  the  rudder,  the  other  to  change  the  angle  of  the 
screws. 

The  most  recent  and  most  interesting  of  submarine 
torpedo-boats  is  that  known  as  the  "Holland,"  the 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  263 

invention  of  Mr.  John  P.  Holland,  which  was  care- 
fully tested  in  Newark  Bay  and  New  York  harbor 
during  1896  and  1897.  Mr.  Holland's  experiments 
began  in  1887,  his  operations  attracting  the  attention 
of  the  government  sufficiently  to  call  out  the  some- 
what rigorous  proposals  from  the  Navy  Department. 

The  boat  recently  tested  is  fifty-five  feet  long  and 
ten  and  one-quarter  feet  diameter,  the  hull  being  of  a 
blunt  cigar  shape.  Her  displacement  is  75  tons.  The 
latest  trial  of  this  odd-looking  craft  was  under  the 
supervision  of  a  board  of  officers  from  the  Brooklyn 
Navy- Yard,  who  found  it  rather  hard  to  keep  track 
of  the  boat  in  her  sudden  and  startling  appearances 
and  vanishings.  During  this  trial  the  cover  of  the 
turret  was  not  raised  for  two  hours,  and  when  the 
men  came  out  they  declared  that  they  had  remained 
perfectly  comfortable,  and  that  the  boat  was  at  all 
times  fully  under  their  control.  The  Holland  boat  has 
advantages  over  the  lake  boat  mentioned  in  being 
more  roomy,  and  therefore  more  comfortable  to  its 
inmates,  while  the  torpedo-tubes  which  it  carries  at 
each  end  give  it  the  means  of  inflicting  a  double  blow 
on  an  enemy. 

The  Holland  has  two  sources  of  power,  a  gas-engine 
for  use  at  the  surface,  and  a  motor  run  by  storage 
batteries  in  its  under-water  trips.  The  engine  and 
motor  operate  a  common  shaft,  an  arrangement  which 
permits  the  engine  to  be  used  in  charging  the  bat- 
teries. Above  the  batteries,  on  each  side  of  the  vessel, 
are  placed  the  tanks  of  compressed  air,  from  which  a 
steady  supply  of  fresh  air  can  be  obtained  by  the  crew 
until  the  charge  is  exhausted.  The  liquid  fuel  for  the 
gas-engine  is  stored  in  the  cellular  bottom  of  the  little 


264  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

craft,  and  here  also  are  the  water-ballast  tanks,  which 
aid  in  the  operations  of  diving  downward  and  rising 
again  to  the  surface.  The  boat  is  buoyant  enough  to 
rise  to  the  surface  with  her  tanks  all  filled  and  her 
crew  on  board,  she  being  directed  downward  by  alter- 
ing the  pitch  of  her  rudders  or  side  fins,  and  main- 
tained at  the  required  depth  by  means  of  delicate 
mechanism  adapted  to  that  purpose. 

The  Holland  is  provided  with  formidable  powers  of 
offence.  In  her  bow  is  carried  a  tube  for  discharging 
a  Whitehead  torpedo,  one  of  the  most  dangerous  of 
modern  destructive  devices.  In  addition  she  carries 
two  tubes  for  gun-cotton  torpedoes,  one  pointing  aft 
and  one  forward.  The  forward  tube  points  upward, 
and  can  throw  a  gun-cotton  projectile  through  three- 
quarters  of  a  mile  of  air.  The  other  is  called  an 
under-water  torpedo-gun,  and  can  drive  its  shell  with 
accurate  aim  through  two  hundred  feet  of  water.  In 
a  trial  of  her  powers,  the  aerial  tube,  worked  under 
partial  air-pressure,  threw  a  dummy  projectile  two 
hundred  and  fifty  yards  through  the  air,  and  the  sub- 
marine tube,  with  fifty  pounds'  pressure,  sent  a  three- 
hundred-pound  weight  through  one  hundred  feet  of 
water. 

Mr.  Holland's  success  in  his  experiments  brought 
from  the  government  in  1895  an  order  for  a  larger 
vessel  of  this  type,  in  accordance  with  which  a  boat 
called  the  Plunger  has  been  constructed  at  Baltimore. 
This  is  eighty-five  feel  long,  eleven  and  a  half  feet 
diameter,  and  168  tons  displacement.  Its  estimated 
speed  is  sixteen  knots  on  the  surface  and  ten  knots 
when  submerged.  The  electric  motor  of  the  Plunger, 
fed  from  forty-eight  chloride  storage-cells,  is  of  70 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  265 

horse-power,  and  is  capable  of  propelling  the  boat 
under  water  for  at  least  six  hours.  A  conning-tower 
is  provided,  through  the  aid  of  which  the  boat  is  run 
when  at  the  surface.  When  she  sinks,  a  small  dull- 
colored  tube  projects  above  the  water,  at  whose  top 
an  inclined  mirror  throws  downward  a  picture  of  the 
surrounding  waters  on  a  board  in  the  conning-tower. 
This  device  overcomes  the  difficulty  of  directing  the 
course  of  the  vessel  when  submerged.  An  automatic 
gauge  serves  to  show  the  depth  below  the  surface. 
This  ingenious  device,  based  on  the  principle  of  the 
aneroid  barometer,  is  of  European  invention. 

If  the  Plunger,  or  any  of  her  rivals,  should  prove  a 
success,  she  must  inaugurate  a  revolution  in  naval 
warfare  which  will  utterly  change  the  conditions  ex- 
isting in  the  twentieth  century  as  compared  with  the 
nineteenth.  The  greatest  and  most  vigilant  battle- 
ship will  be  at  the  mercy  of  such  a  foe.  It  would  be 
difficult,  with  the  aid  of  the  most  powerful  search- 
light, to  discover  at  night  the  insignificant  conning- 
tower  of  such  a  craft,  while  when  submerged  she 
could  approach  an  enemy  unseen  and  safe  from  all 
the  guns  of  her  helpless  prey.  Any  harbor  protected 
by  boats  of  this  class  would  be  safe  from  an  invading 
fleet,  since  no  ship  would  care  to  venture  within  the 
bounds  of  almost  sure  destruction.  A  blockading 
fleet  would  be  in  almost  as  great  peril,  and  with  a  suffi- 
cient number  of  these  invisible,  swift,  and  destructive 
little  craft  any  country  would  probably  be  able  to  keep 
its  harbors  secure  and  its  ports  open  against  the  most 
formidable  naval  powers  of  the  world. 


266  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

WAR  SQUADRONS  AND  NAVAL  RANK. 

IN  the  preceding  pages  we  have  sought  to  give  a 
definite  description  of  the  development  of  the  modern 
types  of  war-vessels,  with  a  detailed  statement  of  the 
several  vessels  which  make  up  the  existing  navy  of 
the  United  States,  their  size,  power,  armor,  armament, 
and  other  distinguishing  characteristics.  The  opening 
of  the  war  with  Spain  in  April,  1898,  brought  these  ves- 
sels into  active  service  after  a  considerable  period  of 
virtual  inaction,  the  fleet  being  divided  into  squadrons, 
assigned  to  special  stations,  while  numerous  additions 
were  made  to  it  by  purchase  or  subsidy.  This  section 
of  the  subject  may  be  fitly  closed  with  a  list  of  the  ves- 
sels composing  the  several  squadrons  and  the  names 
of  their  commanders,  at  the  date  of  the  declaration  of 
war. 

The  Atlantic  fleet  was  divided  into  two  sections, 
known  as  the  North  Atlantic  Squadron,  stationed  at 
Key  West,  under  the  command  of  acting  Rear-Ad- 
miral  William  T.  Sampson,  and  the  Flying  Squadron, 
stationed  at  Hampton  Roads,  under  Commodore 
Winfield  Scott  Schley.  Somewhat  later  was  added  to 
this  a  Northern  Patrol  Squadron,  composed  mainly 
of  subsidized  vessels,  under  Commodore  John  A. 
Howell.  These  squadrons  were  made  up  as  follows: 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  267 

NORTH  ATLANTIC  SQUADRON. 

New  York  (flag-ship),  armored  cruiser,  Captain 
French  E.  Chadwick. 

Iowa,  battle-ship,  Captain  Robley  D.  Evans. 

Indiana,  battle-ship,  Captain  Henry  C.  Taylor. 

Puritan,  monitor,  Captain  Purnell  F.  Harrington. 

Terror,  monitor,  Captain  Nicoll  Ludlow. 

Amphitrite,  monitor,  Captain  C.  J.  Barclay. 

Miantonomoh,  monitor,  Captain  Mortimer  L.  John- 
son. 

Cincinnati,  cruiser,  Captain  Colley  M.  Chester. 

Detroit,  cruiser,  Commander  James  H.  Dayton. 

Montgomery,  cruiser,  Commander  George  H.  Con- 
verse. 

Marblehead,  cruiser,  Commander  Bowman  H.  Mc- 
Calla. 

Wilmington,  gunboat,  Commander  Chapman  C. 
Todd. 

Helena,  gunboat,  Commander  William  T.  Swin- 
burne. 

Nashville,  gunboat,  Commander  Washburn  May- 
nard. 

Annapolis,  gunboat,  Commander  J.  J.  Hunker. 

Castine,  gunboat,  Commander  Robert  M.  Berry. 

Vicksburg,  gunboat,  Commander  A.  B.  H.  Lillie. 

Machias,  gunboat,  Commander  John  F.  Merry. 

Newport,  gunboat,  Commander  Benjamin  F.  Tilley. 

Bancroft,  gunboat,  Commander  R.  Glover. 

Vesuvius,  dynamite  gunboat,  Lieutenant-Comman- 
der John  E.  Pillsbury. 

Dolphin,  despatch-boat,  Commander  Henry  W. 
Lyon. 


268  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

Fern,  despatch-boat,  Lieutenant-Commander  Wil- 
liam F.  Cowles. 

Dupont,  torpedo-boat  (flag-ship  of  torpedo  fleet), 
Lieutenant  Spenser  S.  Wood. 

Gushing,  torpedo-boat,  Lieutenant  Albert  Cleaves. 

Ericsson,  torpedo-boat,  Lieutenant-Commander 
Nathaniel  R.  Usher. 

Rodgers,  torpedo-boat,  Lieutenant  Joseph  L.  Jayne. 

Winslow,  torpedo-boat,  Lieutenant  John  L.  Ber- 
nadou. 

Foote,  torpedo-boat,  Lieutenant  William  L.  Rod- 
gers. 

Porter,  torpedo-boat,  Lieutenant  John  C.  Fremont. 

Stiletto,  torpedo-boat,  Lieutenant  H.  Hutchings. 

Talbot,  torpedo-boat,  Lieutenant  W.  R.  Shoemaker. 

Gwin,  torpedo-boat,  Lieutenant  C.  S.  Williams. 

FLYING  SQUADRON. 

Brooklyn  (flag-ship),  armored  cruiser,  Captain 
Francis  A.  Cook. 

Massachusetts,  battle-ship,  Captain  Francis  J.  Hig- 
ginson. 

Texas,  battle-ship,  Captain  John  W.  Phillips. 

Columbia,  cruiser,  Captain  James  H.  Sands. 

Minneapolis,  cruiser,  Captain  Theodore  F.  Jewell. 

NORTHERN   PATROL   SQUADRON. 

Yankee,  converted  steamship,  Commander  Willard 
H.  Brownson. 

Dixie,  converted  steamship,  Commander  Charles 
H.  Davis. 

Prairie,  converted  steamship,  Commander  Charles 
J.  Train. 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  269 

Yosemite,  converted  steamship,  Commander  Wil- 
liam H.  Emory. 

Katahdin,  ram,  Commander  George  F.  F.  Wilde. 

ASIATIC  SQUADRON  (HONG  KONG). 

Commodore  (now  Rear-Admiral)  George  Dewey. 

Olympia  (flag-ship),  cruiser,  Captain  Charles  V. 
Gridley. 

Baltimore,  cruiser,  Captain  Nehemiah  M.  Dyer. 

Raleigh,  cruiser,  Commander  Joseph  B.  Coghlan. 

Boston,  cruiser,  Commander  Benjamin  P.  Lamber- 
ton. 

Concord,  gunboat,  Commander  Asa  Walker. 

Petrel,  gunboat,  Commander  Edward  P.  Wood. 

Monocacy,  corvette  (old  navy),  Commander  Oscar 
W.  Farenholt. 

McCullough,  despatch-boat,  Captain  A.  C.  Hodg- 
son. 

PACIFIC  SQUADRON. 

Rear- Admiral  Joseph  N.  Miller. 

Monterey,  monitor,  commander  not  assigned. 

Monadnock,  monitor,  Captain  William  H.  Whiting. 

Bennington,  gunboat,  Commander  Henry  E. 
Nichols. 

Marietta,  gunboat,  Commander  Frederick  M.  Sy- 
monds. 

Alert,  gunboat,  Commander  E.  H.  C.  Leutze. 

Charleston,  cruiser,  Captain  Henry  Glass. 

At  subsequent  dates  numerous  changes  were  made 
in  these  squadrons.  The  battle-ship  Oregon,  Captain 
Charles  E.  Clark,  was  brought  from  the  Pacific  coast 
and  joined  Admiral  Sampson's  fleet.  The  gunboat 
Marietta  made  a  similar  voyage  around  the  continent. 


270  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

The  Charleston  was  sent  to  join  Admiral  Dewey's 
squadron,  followed  by  the  monitors  Monadnock  and 
Monterey,  to  the  latter  of  which  Captain  E.  H.  C. 
Leutze  was  assigned.  Captain  Gridley,  of  the  Olym- 
pia,  was  relieved  from  command  on  account  of  ill 
health,  and  died  on  the  way  home.  Captain  Lamber- 
ton,  of  the  Boston,  succeeded  him.  Captain  Frederick 
Rodgers  succeeded  Captain  Harrington — relieved  on 
account  of  ill  health — in  command  of  the  Puritan. 
The  Flying  Squadron  was  reinforced  by  the  cruiser 
New  Orleans,  Captain  W.  M.  Folger. 

The  cruisers  Atlanta,  Chicago,  San  Francisco, 
Newark,  and  Philadelphia,  the  gunboats  Wheeling, 
Yorktown,  and  Princeton,  and  the  Civil  War  monitors 
were  under  repair  or  preparation  for  service  at  various 
navy-yards.  The  San  Francisco,  Captain  R.  R.  Leary, 
was  later  made  flag-ship  of  the  Northern  Patrol 
Squadron,  to  which  was  added  the  Columbia  and  the 
Minneapolis,  while  the  Yankee  and  the  Yosemite  were 
transferred  to  the  North  Atlantic  Squadron. 

To  the  North  Atlantic  Squadron  were  later  added 
the  fast  steamships  St.  Paul,  Captain  Charles  D.  Sigs- 
bee  (formerly  captain  of  the  Maine);  St.  Louis,  Cap- 
tain Casper  F.  Goodrich;  Harvard,  Captain  C.  S. 
Cotton;  Yale,  Captain  W.  C.  Wise;  the  relief  ship 
Solace,  Commander  A.  Dunlap,  and  others. 

The  above  does  not  constitute  the  complete  fleet, 
a  number  of  other  vessels  having  been  added  by  pur- 
chase or  subsidy,  and  adapted  to  various  purposes,  the 
principal  war-vessels  among  them  being  the  cruiser 
Topeka  and  the  dynamite  boat  Buffalo,  purchased 
abroad,  and  a  number  of  yachts,  etc.,  converted  into 
gunboats. 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  271 

RANK  IN  THE  UNITED   STATES   NAVY. 

The  title  of  the  highest  rank  of  naval  officers,  not 
only  in  our  navy  but  in  those  of  several  other  coun- 
tries, is  that  of  admiral,  modified  into  amiral  in  French, 
almirante  in  Spanish  and  Portuguese,  and  ammiraglio 
in  Italian.  The  original  English  admiral  was  not  a  com- 
mander, but  possessed  those  extensive  powers  after- 
wards exercised  by  the  Lord  High  Admiral,  an  office 
last  held  by  the  Duke  of  Clarence,  afterwards  William 
IV.  The  earliest  head  of  the  American  navy,  Esek 
Hopkins,  bore  the  title  of  Commander-in-chief,  but  on 
November  15,  1776,  Congress  decided  on  adopting 
the  English  titles,  that  of  admiral  to  rank  with  general, 
vice-admiral  with  lieutenant-general,  and  rear-admiral 
with  major-general.  These  titles,  however,  did  not 
accord  with  the  democratic  sentiment  of  the  people, 
and  the  highest  officers  in  our  navy  bore  the  official 
title  of  captain  until  1862.  There  was  only  one  ex- 
ception to  this,  that  of  Charles  Stewart,  who  was  ac- 
corded in  1859  the  special  title  of  Senior  Flag-officer. 
The  captains  in  the  United  States  navy  in  command 
of  squadrons  were  popularly  known  under  the  title 
of  commodore,  their  rank  being  indicated  by  their 
broad  pennant,  but  they  were  never  commissioned 
under  this  title  before  1862. 

The  Act  of  Congress  of  July  16,  1862,  reorganizing 
the  navy,  recalled  the  grade  of  rear-admiral,  and  con- 
firmed that  of  commodore,  the  latter  to  rank  with  a 
brigadier-general  in  the  army.  Nine  rear-admirals 
were  authorized  to  be  commissioned  on  the  active, 
and  nine  on  the  retired  or  reserve  list,  the  number  on 
the  active  list  being  subsequently  reduced  to  seven, 
while  that  on  the  retired  list  has  varied  from  time  to 


222  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

time.  The  senior  three  active  rear-admirals  were 
privileged  to  fly  their  special  blue  flag  at  the  main- 
mast top,  the  next  three  at  the  foremast,  and  the  re- 
mainder at  the  mizzen-mast.  The  first  rear-admiral's 
flag  was  hoisted  by  Farragut  on  the  Hartford,  at  New 
Orleans,  August  12,  1862.  Farragut  was  commis- 
sioned vice-admiral  December  21,  1864,  and  admiral, 
July  25,  1866,  these  titles  being  created  for  him. 
David  D.  Porter  succeeded  him  as  vice-admiral  in 
1866,  and  on  his  death,  in  August,  1870,  Porter  suc- 
ceeded to  his  title.  It  lapsed  after  his  death,  and  there 
is  at  present  no  admiral  or  vice-admiral  in  our  navy. 
These  titles  were  borrowed  from  England,  where  they 
are  employed  for  the  active  admirals  of  highest  rank. 
The  English  "Admiral  of  the  Fleet"  is  an  honorary 
title  conferred  by  the  sovereign. 

The  admiral  commands  a  fleet  or  fleets,  the  vice- 
admiral  a  fleet,  or  a  division  of  a  fleet  under  an  ad- 
miral, and  the  rear-admiral  a  fleet  or  squadron.  The 
commodore  may  command  a  division  or  squadron,  be 
chief  staff-officer,  or  command  a  vessel  under  an  officer 
of  higher  rank. 

The  next  in  rank  of  the  line-officers  of  the  navy  is 
the  captain,  ranking  with  the  colonel  in  the  army. 
Next  in  succession  is  the  commander,  ranking  with 
the  lieutenant-colonel,  an  office  introduced  in  the 
United  States  navy  in  1838,  and  succeeding  him  is 
the  lieutenant-commander,  introduced  in  1862,  and 
ranking  with  the  major.  These  officers  command 
vessels  of  a  grade  in  proportion  with  their  rank,  the 
captain  those  of  first  or  second  class,  the  commander 
those  of  third  or  fourth  class,  and  the  lieutenant- 
commander  those  of  fourth  class.  There  are  three 
other  line-officers,  the  lieutenant,  ranking  with  an 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  273 

army  captain,  the  lieutenant  (junior  grade),  ranking 
with  a  first  lieutenant,  and  the  ensign,  ranking  with  a 
second  lieutenant.  The  duties  of  a  lieutenant  are 
those  of  watch  officer  or  navigator,  or  he  may  be 
appointed  in  command  of  smaller  vessels.  The  en- 
sign, the  lowest  grade  of  commissioned  officer,  bears 
a  title  introduced  in  1862  to  replace  that  of  passed 
midshipman.  He  is  a  steerage  officer,  and  may  be 
ordered  to  duty  in  the  forecastle,  the  fire-room,  or 
to  any  other  duty  at  the  discretion  of  the  commander. 
The  title  of  midshipman,  formerly  given  to  the  lowest 
line-officer  in  the  navy,  is  now  confined  to  graduates 
of  the  naval  academy  while  awaiting  promotion  to 
the  rank  of  ensign.  That  of  passed  midshipman — now 
ensign — belongs  to  one  who  has  passed  an  examina- 
tion entitling  him  to  promotion  to  a  lieutenancy. 

In  addition  to  the  line-officers,  our  navy  possesses 
four  non-commissioned  officials  known  as  warrant 
officers,  they  receiving  their  appointments  under  war- 
rant from  the  Navy  Board  or  the  Secretary  of  the 
Navy.  These  include  the  boatswain,  gunner,  car- 
penter, and  sail-maker.  The  duties  of  these  officers, 
except  the  first,  are  indicated  by  their  titles.  The 
boatswain  has  various  and  arduous  duties.  He  and 
his  mates  have  direct  charge  of  the  men,  seeing  that 
they  respond  promptly  to  orders  and  act  with  alacrity. 
It  is  their  duty  to  keep  a  close  supervision  over  masts 
and  rigging,  and  to  pipe  all  hands  to  duty  for  general 
work,  the  boatswain's  whistle  being  heard  in  all  exi- 
gencies on  board  ship. 

The  gunner  has  charge  of  everything  relating  to 
guns  and  ammunition,  and  must  see  that  the  ordnance 
is  kept  constantly  in  order  for  any  emergency.  The 

18 


274  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

carpenter  has  similar  supervision  over  the  masts  and 
spars,  it  being  his  duty  to  see  that  they  are  always  in 
good  order;  and  the  sail-maker  has  like  charge  of  the 
sails. 

The  master,  an  officer  of  our  older  navy,  took  rank 
next  below  the  lieutenants,  his  duty  being  to  navigate 
the  ship  under  direction  of  the  captain.  Hence  he 
was  often  entitled  sailing-master.  This  title  is  now 
confined  to  the  merchant  service,  being  the  official 
title  of  a  merchant  captain.  Master's  mate  is  an  ob- 
solete title  from  the  old  navy.  The  master-at-arms  is 
a  petty  officer  who  performs  police  duties  on  a  man- 
of-war,  such  as  enforcing  order  on  the  berth-deck, 
taking  charge  of  prisoners,  and  other  duties  of  this 
character. 

The  duties  of  some  of  the  minor  officers,  such  as 
the  carpenter  and  sail-maker,  have  ceased  to  be  neces- 
sary on  any  but  our  smaller  vessels,  masts  and  sails 
having  vanished  from  the  larger  ones.  On  the  other 
hand,  there  has  arisen  a  corps  of  staff-officers  which 
did  not  exist  on  earlier  ships  of  war.  The  present  pay- 
master and  his  assistants  were  preceded  by  the  purser, 
whose  accounts  were  reported  directly  to  the  Secretary 
of  the  Navy.  The  surgeon  and  his  assistants  were 
preceded  by  surgeons  employed  from  civil  life,  and 
who  purchased  their  own  stores,  their  accounts  going 
into  the  purser's  reports.  The  naval  constructors  of 
the  present  staff  were  preceded  by  skilled  men  em- 
ployed from  civil  life,  and  who  similarly  accounted  for 
their  expenses  to  the  Secretary.  These  officers,  with 
the  chaplain  and  chief  and  assistant  engineer,  are  now 
regularly  appointed  officials,  forming  the  staff-corps 
of  the  commander  of  the  ship,  and  accountable  to  him 
for  the  performance  of  their  duties. 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  275 

As  regards  flags,  that  of  the  admiral  has  four,  of 
the  vice-admiral  three,  and  of  the  rear-admiral  two 
white  stars.  When  several  admirals  of  the  same  grade 
meet,  the  senior  displays  a  blue,  the  next  a  red,  and 
the  others  white  flags.  The  commodore  has  a  broad 
blue  pennant  with  one  white  star,  with  the  same  varia- 
tion in  color  when  several  commodores  meet.  Any 
officer  commanding  a  vessel,  not  flying  the  admiral's 
or  commodore's  flag,  flies  a  narrow  pennant  at  the 
main. 

The  United  States  Naval  Academy,  the  source  of 
supply  for  naval  officers,  was  founded  in  1845  by 
George  Bancroft,  Secretary  of  the  Navy.  Efforts  to 
found  an  institution  of  this  kind  had  been  made  pre- 
viously, as  by  Secretary  Jones  in  the  war  of  1812-14, 
but  it  was  now  first  permanently  established,  it  being 
formally  opened,  at  Annapolis,  Maryland,  October  10, 
1845.  I*1  Mav>  J86i,  on  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War, 
it  was  removed  to  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  and  was 
moved  back  to  Annapolis  in  September,  1865.  A  line- 
officer,  of  a  rank  not  below  that  of  captain,  has  the 
superintendency  of  this  institution,  whose  studies  in- 
clude seamanship,  naval  tactics  and  construction,  ord- 
nance and  gunnery,  steam-engineering,  navigation, 
and  a  number  of  more  general  branches  of  education, 
the  course  of  instruction  extending  over  four  years. 
Practical  instruction  and  drill  in  seamanship,  naval 
tactics,  and  the  handling  of  ordnance  are  important 
essentials  of  the  courses  of  study,  practice  cruises 
being  given  annually  for  instruction  in  seamanship 
and  navigation.  It  is  from  this  institution  that  the 
line-officers  and  members  of  the  engineer  corps  of  the 
naval  and  marine  service  are  recruited. 


PART   III. 

Armor  and  Armament. 
*** 

CHAPTER    I. 

THE  CONTEST  BETWEEN  PLATE  AND  PROJECTILE. 

THE  vital  element  in  modern  naval  architecture  has 
been  the  long  duel  between  arms  of  offence  and  de- 
fence, between  the  cannon  and  the  iron  or  steel  plate. 
It  began  at  Kinburn  in  the  Crimea,  when  the  French 
floating  batteries  defied  the  fire  of  land-forts  at  half- 
mile  range.  The  Monitor  and  Merrimac  hammered 
each  other  at  close  quarters  for  three  hours  without  a 
ball  penetrating  a  plate.  But  the  introduction  of  rifled 
guns,  and  their  increasing  weight  and  power,  soon 
made  a  change.  The  four  or  five  inches  of  iron  armor 
became  useless  for  defence,  and  a  race  began  between 
the  resistance  of  armor  and  the  penetrating  power  of 
projectiles,  which  is  still  kept  up. 

The  plates  of  the  Civil  War  monitors  were  of  ham- 
mered iron,  but  the  rolling  of  large  iron  plates  soon 
after  began,  these  increasing  in  thickness  as  the  force 
of  projectiles  grew.  In  1867,  as  no  reliable  plate 
thicker  than  six  or  seven  inches  could  at  that  time  be 
produced,  the  system  of  combining  a  number  of  plates 
was  adopted.  But  tests  have  proved  that  solid  plates 
have  greater  resisting  power,  and  these  alone  are  now 
276 


ADMIRAL   DEWEY. 


REAR-ADMIRAL   SAMPSON. 


COMMODORE  SCHLEY. 


CAPTAIN    SIGSBEE. 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  277 

used.  Thus  a  6o-pound  round  shot  that  failed  to  pene- 
trate a  4-inch  solid  plate  has  been  found  to  pass  readily 
through  six  inches  of  i-inch  plates  laid  together. 

By  1872  rolling-mills  had  become  able  to  produce 
12-inch  plate  of  good  quality,  but  even  this  thickness 
was  not  enough  to  keep  out  the  projectiles  of  that  day, 
and  thicker  armor-plate  became  necessary.  The  limit 
was  reached  about  1880,  when  the  British  ship  In- 
flexible put  on  armor  twenty-four  inches  thick,  France 
and  Italy  closely  following.  But  the  power  of  the 
gun  was  steadily  increasing;  an  8o-ton  gun  sent  its 
projectile  through  three  8-inch  iron  plates,  and  it 
began  to  look  as  if  no  weight  of  iron  that  could  be 
laid  on  a  ship's  sides  would  suffice  to  keep  out  the 
shells  of  large  rifled  guns. 

Greater  resisting  power  was  wanted,  steel  was  found 
to  be  far  tougher  than  wrought  iron,  and  the  use  of 
iron  plate  approached  its  end.  In  1877  what  is  known 
as  compound  armor — wrought  iron  faced  with  steel — 
was  first  produced.  This  was  manufactured  by  pour- 
ing molten  steel,  at  a  great  heat,  over  a  wrought-iron 
plate,  or  by  placing  a  thin  steel  plate  at  a  short  dis- 
tance from  the  iron  and  filling  in  the  space  with 
molten  steel,  which  bound  the  two  plates  together. 
The  compound  of  steel  and  iron  was  then  toughened 
by  being  compressed  to  about  half  its  original  thick- 
ness. The  result  proved  of  great  importance.  The 
steel  face  could  not  be  penetrated  by  the  shot  of  that 
day.  It  had  to  be  cracked  and  broken  up  before  the 
iron  could  be  reached.  In  consequence  compound 
armor  was  used  on  British  ships  for  about  ten  years 
after  1880. 

The  question  now  arose,  if  a  steel  face  was  of  such 


278  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

utility,  would  not  solid  steel  be  better?  A  test  was 
made  in  Italy  in  1882,  with  plates  of  the  two  kinds, 
each  18.9  inches  thick.  Two  shots  from  the  loo-ton 
gun  wrecked  the  compound  plate,  while  the  steel  plate 
bore  three  shots  and  still  retained  powers  of  resistance. 
The  final  conclusion  reached  abroad  was  that  com- 
pound plates — about  one-third  steel — were  the  best  up 
to  twelve  inches,  beyond  which  solid  steel  was  much 
superior. 

Meanwhile,  the  development  of  the  projectile  was 
not  confined  to  size  alone.  Harder  material  was  used. 
Chilled  iron  gave  way  to  cast  steel.  Forged  steel  fol- 
lowed. The  penetrating  power  of  shells  enormously 
increased,  their  greater  hardness  and  toughness  being 
made  effective  by  the  immense  velocities  with  which 
they  were  hurled  from  the  muzzle  of  the  gun.  Such 
was  the  state  of  affairs  in  1886,  when  the  United  States 
came  into  the  market  for  heavy  armor  of  home  manu- 
facture. The  facts  had  been  threshed  out  by  experi- 
ment abroad.  Only  solid  steel  was  wanted  for  Ameri- 
can ships.  The  plant  to  make  it  was  lacking,  but  a 
difficulty  of  this  kind  was  a  small  matter  to  American 
mechanics,  and  within  two  or  three  years  there  were 
shops  in  this  country  ready  to  vie  with  the  best  of 
those  abroad  in  the  production  of  armor-plate  and 
great  guns.  The  rapid  development  in  this  direction 
has  been  described  in  a  former  chapter. 

In  1890  a  new  material  was  produced  at  the  Krupp 
works  in  Germany, — steel  alloyed  with  a  small  per- 
centage of  nickel,  which  added  considerably  to  its 
toughness.  It  was  at  once  adopted  in  this  country. 
It  is  to  the  United  States,  however,  that  the  world 
owes  the  greatest  improvement  in  armor-plate,  the 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 


279 


adoption  of  the  Harvey  process  of  surface-hardening, 
first  tested  in  1890.  The  problem  had  been  how  to 
make  a  plate  hard  enough  in  the  face  to  break  up  steel 
shot  and  tough  enough  in  the  back  to  hold  together 
if  the  shot  got  through.  Compound  plates  were  not 
hard  enough  at  the  surface.  Solid  steel  was  too  brittle 
at  the  back.  The  problem  lay  open  for  solution. 

It  was  solved  by  the  Harvey  process,  which  gave  to 
the  steel  plate  a  very  hard  face  with  a  soft  and  tena- 
cious back.  The  method  consists  in  hardening  the 
face  of  the  plate  in  a  manner  somewhat  resembling 
the  cementation  process  of  making  steel.  In  Harvey- 
izing,  one  surface  of  the  steel  plate  is  planed  off,  and 
two  such  plates  are  laid  together,  with  a  layer  of  animal 
charcoal  equal  to  their  own  thickness  between.  They 
are  then  covered  with  sand  and  heated  to  a  tempera- 
ture of  1800°  F.  This  heat  is  kept  up  for  two  weeks, 
at  the  end  of  which  time  the  carbon  is  found  to  have 
made  its  way  deeply  into  the  surface  of  the  plates, 
which  have  grown  very  hard.  After  cooling  for  a 
week,  the  steel  is  heated  again  and  chilled  with  water. 
It  is  now  found  to  be  so  hard  that  no  drill  can  make 
holes  in  it.  Rivet  holes  have  to  be  made  in  advance, 
or  the  surface  softened  by  local  heating  with  elec- 
tricity. 

The  resisting  power  of  nickel  steel  with  Harveyized 
face  is  extraordinary.  The  United  States  has  kept  up 
a  constant  series  of  tests  at  its  proving-grounds,  ac- 
cepting no  plate  whose  endurance  has  not  been  thor- 
oughly proved.  In  a  test  in  1895,  a  1 6-inch  steel  plate, 
with  thirty-six  inches  of  o?.k  backing,  was  attacked  at 
short  range  by  guns  of  ten,  twelve,  and  thirteen  inches 
bore.  The  lo-inch  gun  caused  a  penetration  of  eleven 


280  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

inches,  but  no  cracks  appeared  and  the  backing  re- 
mained sound.  The  projectile  of  the  1 2-inch  gun  was 
destroyed  after  penetrating  seventeen  inches.  The 
plate  was  cracked,  but  the  backing  held  good.  The 
13-inch  gun  sent  its  iioo-pound  steel  shell  through 
the  plate  and  its  backing,  and  twelve  feet  deep  into 
the  sand  behind.  The  resistance  of  a  single  plate  to 
three  such  shots  at  short  range  was  remarkable.  No 
one  plate  is  ever  likely  to  receive  a  similar  battering, 
particularly  at  such  short  range,  in  actual  battle,  and 
a  vessel  armored  with  plates  like  this  is  practically 
secure.  In  another  test,  in  which  the  powerful  1 3-inch 
gun  was  used,  with  its  striking  energy  of  twenty-five 
thousand  foot-tons,  the  shell,  after  penetrating  ten 
inches  into  the  plate  and  considerably  splintering  its 
oak  backing,  was  completely  destroyed. 

One  of  the  plates  of  the  battle-ship  Massachusetts 
was  attacked  by  two  1 2-inch  88o-pound  forged  steel 
shot,  the  first  with  a  muzzle  velocity  of  1410,  the 
second  of  1853  ^eet  Per  second.  The  first,  calculated 
to  pierce  twenty  inches  of  iron  and  14.4  inches  of  steel, 
broke  up  after  penetrating  eight  inches.  The  second, 
whose  penetrating  record  was  24.2  inches  of  iron  and 
19.4  inches  of  steel,  pierced  the  plate  but  eleven  inches, 
slightly  cracking  it.  In  other  tests  a  1 4-inch  plate 
has  been  found  to  pass  the  trial  for  seventeen  inches 
of  ordinary  steel,  while  a  Carnegie  plate  has  shown 
the  astonishing  power  of  resisting  a  projectile  that 
would  have  passed  through  two  and  a  half  times  the 
same  thickness  of  iron. 

The  net  result  of  the  Harvey  process  is  that  armor 
has  regained  an  equality  with  the  power  of  the  gun. 
It  is  true  that  there  are  guns  and  projectiles  now  in 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  281 

use  which,  on  the  proving-ground,  can  break  up  any 
plate  yet  produced.  But  in  action  steel  plates  are  not 
exposed  to  proving-ground  tests;  contests  take  place 
at  much  greater  distances.  Many  of  the  balls  strike 
obliquely,  and  in  no  case  are  many  direct  hits  likely  to 
fall  upon  a  single  plate.  American  battle-ships,  there- 
fore, with  their  armor  of  Harveyized  nickel  steel,  can 
fairly  bid  defiance  to  any  shot  directed  against  their 
central  region,  to  which  the  main  defence  is  applied. 

A  recently  considered  defect  in  the  use  of  shells 
against  armor  is  their  explosion  on  contact,  or  before 
they  can  penetrate  to  a  sufficient  depth  to  do  much 
harm.  Invention  is  now  at  work  in  efforts  to  devise 
means  to  retard  explosion,  and  give  shells  time  to 
penetrate  more  deeply  before  they  explode,  and  do 
more  damage  to  the  plate.  Until  1894  the  tendency 
prevailed  abroad  to  use  very  heavy  armor  for  a  certain 
distance  along  the  water-line,  employing  thin  armor 
for  the  remainder  of  the  length.  This  system  has  been 
changed,  and  somewhat  lighter  armor  is  now  used  and 
carried  over  a  larger  section  of  the  side.  Both  these 
methods  have  been  tried  in  American  ships.  Only 
actual  test  in  battle  can  prove  which  is  the  best.  So 
far  the  question  of  armor  has  been  one  of  experiment 
in  times  of  peace.  The  real  utility  of  the  different 
systems  needs  the  stern  test  of  war. 

In  adapting  large  plates  to  the  sides  of  ships,  they 
are  bent  to  the  required  curve  in  enormous  hydraulic 
presses,  or  shaped  under  great  steam-hammers.  They 
are  then  trimmed  up  in  special  planing-  and  sawing- 
machines.  In  fastening  them  to  the  ship  bolts  of  two 
or  three  inches  diameter  are  employed,  being  screwed 
some  distance  into  the  plate.  In  each  group  of  plates 


282  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

made  one  is  selected  for  government  test,  being  fired 
into  at  short  range  to  see  what  it  will  stand.  The  tests 
made  are  very  severe,  and  plates  that  pass  them  can  be 
safely  trusted  to  do  their  duty  in  battle.  The  great- 
est thickness  of  plate  used  is  twenty-one  and  a  half 
inches  on  some  French  and  Italian  battle-ships,  with 
the  exception  of  the  twenty-four  inches  of  compound 
armor  on  the  British  ship  Inflexible.  The  heaviest 
used  on  American  ships  is  the  1 8-inch  Harveyized 
steel  plate  of  the  Indiana,  Massachusetts,  and  Oregon. 


CHAPTER    II. 

MODERN  ORDNANCE  AND  ITS  WORK. 

THE  cannon  used  in  recent  naval  warfare  are  re- 
markably different  from  those  used  in  the  early  wars 
of  this  country,  and  vastly  more  powerful  even  than 
those  employed  in  the  Civil  War.  The  old  smooth- 
bore gun,  with  its  powder  and  round  ball  rammed  in 
at  the  muzzle,  now  exists  only  as  a  curious  relic  of 
the  past,  the  rifled,  breech-loading  cannon,  with  its 
elongated  projectile,  having  almost  everywhere  taken 
its  place;  while  naval  battles,  formerly  fought  at  a 
few  hundred  yards'  distance,  can  now  be  fought  at 
as  many  miles. 

In  this  modern  development  of  ordnance  the  in- 
ventors of  the  United  States  have  played  a  prominent 
part.  The  Paixhans  gun,  for  instance,  long  prominent 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  283 

in  Europe,  was  but  an  adaptation  of  the  columbiad, 
invented  in  1812  by  Colonel  Bomford,  of  the  United 
States  Ordnance  Department,  as  a  long  cannon  for 
firing  shell.  In  1856  Lieutenant  Dahlgren,  of  our 
navy,  invented  the  gun  which  bears  his  name,  and 
which  was  the  favorite  piece  of  ordnance  in  the  navy 
at  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War.  It  was  made  of  a 
solid  mass  of  cast  iron  cooled  from  the  outside  and 
bored  out.  This  was  improved  on  by  the  Rodman 
gun  of  1860,  which  was  cast  hollow  and  cooled  from 
the  inside,  cold  water  being  made  to  flow  through  the 
bore  while  the  exterior  was  kept  hot.  This  put  the 
metal  in  a  state  of  tension  which  fitted  it  to  bear  the 
strain  of  discharge.  These  cannon  proved  far  superior 
to  the  wrought-iron  ones  of  an  earlier  date,  one  of 
which  burst  on  the  steam-frigate  Princeton  in  1844, 
killing,  with  a  number  of  others  on  board,  the  Secre- 
tary of  State  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy. 

Meanwhile,  the  art  of  rifling,  long  before  used  with 
small  arms,  had  been  applied  to  cannon,  cast-iron  rifled 
pieces  being  produced  alike  in  Sardinia  and  in  Sweden 
in  1856.  Their  value  was  soon  proved,  and  to  fit  the 
guns  in  use  to  bear  the  greater  strain,  the  custom 
was  introduced  of  shrinking  a  wrought-iron  jacket 
over  the  breech  of  a  cast-iron  gun.  This  jacket  was  of 
slightly  smaller  diameter  than  the  gun  and  was  ex- 
panded by  heating  until  it  would  just  dip  on.  In 
cooling  it  brought  an  enormous  pressure  to  bear  upon 
the  gun.  The  Parrott  rifled  cannon  used  during  the 
Civil  War  were  made  in  this  way.  Commander  John 
M.  Brooke,  of  the  Confederate  navy,  improved  on 
these  by  shrinking  a  double  series  of  bands  upon  the 
breech. 


284  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

But  cast  and  wrought  iron  alike  were  soon  to  be 
set  aside  in  favor  of  cast  steel  in  the  manufacture  of 
guns.  This  material  was  first  employed  for  the  pur- 
pose in  1850  by  Krupp  in  Germany  and  Whitworth 
in  England,  and  as  soon  as  the  art  of  working  steel 
became  sufficiently  perfected  for  the  product  to  be 
trusted  iron  was  abandoned  for  steel  in  the  manufac- 
ture of  heavy  guns,  which  were  strengthened  in  the 
manner  described  for  cast  iron,  that  of  shrinking  a 
hoop,  or  a  number  of  hoops,  of  steel  upon  the  breech. 
In  the  development  of  the  Armstrong  gun  a  different 
method  was  employed.  Around  a  core  of  wrought 
iron  red-hot  iron  bars  were  coiled,  shrinking  firmly 
into  place  when  cooled.  In  a  later  form  of  the  Arm- 
strong gun  the  core  was  made  of  toughened  steel,  over 
which  were  shrunk  hoops  of  forged  steel,  firmly  locked 
together  to  prevent  any  tendency  to  slip.  This  was 
superseded  by  the  wire  gun,  in  which  a  flat  wire  or 
riband  of  steel  was  first  coiled  firmly  around  the 
breech,  over  which  hoops  of  forged  steel  were  shrunk. 

In  1893  and  again  in  1896  there  was  tested  at  the 
proving-grounds  at  Sandy  Hook  a  wire  gun  of  Ameri- 
can invention  which  admirably  bore  the  tests  applied, 
and  may  take  its  place  as  the  cannon  of  the  future. 
This,  the  invention  of  Captain  J.  H.  Brown,  differs 
essentially  from  those  described.  Instead  of  winding 
steel  ribands  or  shrinking  hoops  around  a  central  core, 
it  discards  the  solid  core  and  builds  up  the  central  tube 
of  segments, — bars  or  staves  of  steel  laid  side  by  side 
to  form  a  cylinder.  Around  these  steel  wire  one-half 
inch  square  is  wound  in  several  successive  sections, 
no  less  than  seventy-five  miles  of  wire  being  used  in 
making  a  lo-inch  gun.  The  gun  is  then  bored  out, 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  285 

heated  internally,  and  shrunk  on  to  a  thin  steel  lining. 
This  gun  has  been  found  to  have  remarkable  elasticity, 
its  strength  being  much  greater  than  that  of  the 
hooped  gun.  Thus  while  the  hooped  lo-inch  navy 
gun  has  a  muzzle  energy  of  15,285  foot-tons,  the 
Brown  gun,  which  is  only  two  tons  heavier,  will  stand 
without  damage  a  muzzle  energy  of  37,800  foot-tons. 

In  rifled  guns  the  spherical  balls  of  the  old  smooth- 
bores have  been  replaced  by  cylindrical  projectiles, 
sometimes  of  several  feet  in  length,  the  purpose  of  the 
rifling  being  to  give  the  projectile  a  rotation  on  its 
longer  axis.    This  rotary  motion  keeps  it  steady  dur- 
ing flight,  enabling  far  more  accurate  aim  to  be  made, 
while  its  directness  of  motion  adds  largely  to  its  range. 
In  modern  guns  the  advantage  of    rifling  has  been 
added  to  by  an  increase  in  the  length  of  the  bore  and 
the  use  of  slow-burning  powder.    With  this  the  press- 
ure is  much  less  at  the  moment  of  explosion  than  in 
quick-burning  powder,  the  gas  being  given  off  more 
slowly,  and  acting  on  the  projectile  with  steadily  in- 
creasing force.    In  a  long  gun,  therefore,  the  powder 
has  more  time  to  act  on  the  projectile,  and  drives  it 
from  the  muzzle  at  greater  speed.      In  the  guns  of 
twenty  years  and  more  ago  it  was  found  that  while 
none  of  the  short  muzzle-loaders   gave  the  shot  a 
velocity  of  sixteen  hundred  feet  a  second,  the  long 
gun  drove  it  from  the  muzzle  at  two  thousand  feet  a 
second.    The  lengths  of  guns  are  estimated  in  calibers, 
the  caliber  being  the  diameter  of  the  bore.     A  few 
years  ago  thirty-five  calibers  was  the  limit  attempted 
in  rifled  guns,  but  to-day  guns  of  much  greater  length 
are  produced.      Canet,  a  French  manufacturer,  has 
gone  as  far  as  sixty  and  eighty  calibers,  though  this 


286  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

process  is  necessarily  limited  by  the  awkwardness  at- 
tending the  use  of  extremely  long  and  slender  guns. 

The  effect  of  this  increase  in  length  is  marked.  A 
6-inch  gun  of  thirty  calibers  is  capable  of  penetrating 
fourteen  inches  of  wrought  iron  at  its  muzzle,  while 
one  of  fifty  calibers  can  penetrate  twenty-one  inches. 
The  effect  of  the  eighty  calibers  of  some  French  guns 
is  to  give  the  enormous  muzzle  velocity  of  over  three 
thousand  two  hundred  feet  a  second,  its  power  of 
penetration  being  correspondingly  great.  This  in- 
crease in  the  length  of  guns,  taken  in  connection  with 
the  use  of  slow-burning  powder,  has  added  so  greatly 
to  their  effectiveness  that  the  weight  of  armament 
carried  on  ships  can  now  be  considerably  reduced 
without  loss  of  penetrating  power. 

An  important  result  of  the  increase  in  the  length  of 
guns  is  the  adoption  of  breech-loading  in  place  of 
muzzle-loading.  While  comparatively  short  guns  were 
used  it  was  simple  and  easy  to  ram  the  powder  and 
shot  in  at  the  muzzle  of  the  gun,  but  with  the  long 
guns  now  produced,  and  particularly  since  the  adop- 
tion of  the  turret  system,  this  has  become  impossible, 
and  breech-loading  is  alone  now  employed. 

It  was  tried  in  the  early  Armstrong  rifled  guns,  but 
proved  unsatisfactory,  and  the  British  navy  continued 
to  use  muzzle-loaders  long  after  they  were  generally 
abandoned  by  other  nations.  The  idea  of  breech- 
loading  is  by  no  means  new.  It  was  tried  as  early  as 
the  sixteenth  century,  and  at  various  later  dates,  dif- 
ferent methods  of  closing  the  breech  being  used.  At 
present  this  is  done  by  three  different  devices, — the 
screw,  the  wedge,  and  the  interrupted  screw.  The 
first  two  of  these  express  their  character  in  their  name. 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  287 

In  the  screw  system  a  vent  piece  is  thrust  downward 
through  a  hole  in  the  top  of  the  gun  and  is  held  in 
place  by  a  screw  driven  strongly  against  it.  This 
screw  is  hollow  and  the  charge  is  introduced  through 
it.  The  wedge  system  used  in  the  Armstrong  and 
Krupp  guns  dispenses  with  the  screw,  a  strong  wedge 
being  pushed  downward  into  the  slot  and  held  firmly 
in  place. 

Of  all  the  systems  employed,  however,  the  inter- 
rupted screw,  an  American  invention,  is  the  simplest 
and  most  easily  handled.  It  is  alone  used  in  the 
United  States  navy,  and  is  being  adopted  abroad.  The 
bore  of  the  gun,  which  runs  of  one  diameter  through 
the  whole  mass  of  steel  from  muzzle  to  breech,  is  in 
this  system  closed  at  the  breech  by  a  heavy  plug,  on 
whose  surface  is  cut  a  strong  screw  fitting  into  a  cor- 
responding screw  in  the  breech.  The  thread  of  the 
screw  is  cut  away  in  sections  both  in  the  plug  and  the 
breech,  so  that  the  plug  can  be  pushed  in  without 
turning,  and  then  fastened  by  a  partial  turn,  causing 
the  screws  to  engage.  The  plug  is  now  made  in  a 
conical  form,  in  order  that,  as  soon  as  the  threads  of 
the  screws  are  disengaged,  it  can  be  swung  out  with  a 
single  motion  on  the  strong  hinge  by  which  it  is  sup- 
ported when  withdrawn. 

One  of  the  principal  difficulties  presented  by  breech- 
loading  mechanism,  the  escape  of  powder  gas  at  the 
breech  when  firing,  has  also  been  overcome  by  the 
invention  of  an  American,  from  whom  the  device  is 
known  as  the  Broadwell  gas-check.  This  is  a  ring  of 
soft  steel  which  bears  against  the  surface  of  the  closing 
wedge.  When  the  gun  is  fired  the  ring  is  forced  back- 


288  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

ward  and  expands,  effectually  closing  the  vent  and 
preventing  the  escape  of  gas. 

A  variety  of  methods  are  in  use  regarding  the  num- 
ber and  depths  of  the  grooves  in  rifled  guns.  Since 
breech-loading  has  become  common,  the  number  of 
grooves  in  the  gun  has  been  increased,  their  twist 
being  made  more  rapid,  while  they  are  not  so  wide 
and  deep  as  formerly.  The  projectiles  are  usually 
furnished  with  copper  rings,  which  expand  to  take 
the  grooves  and  give  the  requisite  rotation  to  the  shot. 

Naval  guns  of  the  present  day  are  of  less  diameter 
than  some  of  those  used  in  the  Civil  War,  when  the 
monitors  bore  1 5-inch  smooth-bores.  The  charges 
now  used  are  so  much  heavier  and  the  recoil  so  much 
greater  that  a  1 3-inch  rifled  cannon  is  as  heavy  as  it 
is  safe  to  use  on  ship-board,  guns  of  wider  bore  being 
confined  to  land  fortifications.  The  latter  are  some- 
times made  as  large  as  1 6-inch  caliber,  some  guns 
of  this  size  being  used  for  United  States  sea-coast 
artillery,  their  projectile  weighing  two  thousand  three 
hundred  and  seventy  pounds.  Still  larger  guns  have 
been  made  in  Europe,  but  the  best  authorities  doubt 
if  rifles  of  more  than  12-  and  1 3-inch  bore  can  be  used 
to  advantage.  Some  of  the  most  powerful  modern 
cannon  are  sighted  for  eight  thousand  seven  hundred 
yards,  at  which  distance  an  object  ten  feet  high  may 
be  hit.  The  distance  to  which  a  ball  can  be  thrown, 
with  full  elevation  of  the  gun,  is  usually  estimated  at 
as  many  miles  as  there  are  inches  in  the  bore.  But  the 
elevation  necessary  for  this  is  impossible  on  board 
ship,  while  accurate  sighting  must  be  confined  to  a 
much  smaller  range. 

As  regards  the  weight  of  projectile  used  in  guns  of 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  289 

different  caliber,  it  may  be  approximately  obtained  in 
any  case  by  a  simple  calculation,  that  of  cubing  the 
number  of  inches  in  the  bore  and  dividing  by  two. 
The  projectiles  for  the  large  guns  are  several  feet  in 
length,  and  take  half  their  weight  in  powder  for  their 
discharge.  It  need  scarcely  be  said  that  warfare  with 
these  great  guns  is  a  very  costly  operation. 

The  range-finder  is  an  important  adjunct  of  a 
modern  gun.  The  gunner  of  old,  who  had  the  side  of 
a  ship  at  a  few  hundred  yards.'  distance  to  hit,  could 
locate  his  mark  by  squinting  through  the  sights  of  his 
gun,  but  where  the  projectile  has  miles  to  travel  such 
methods  as  this  would  be  a  sheer  waste  of  powder  and 
shot.  Several  range-finders  of  American  invention 
are  in  use,  they  being  usually  based  on  the  principle 
of  using  two  telescopes,  as  far  apart  as  possible  on 
either  side  of  the  gun,  and  calculating  the  range  of  the 
object  from  the  angle  which  each  makes  with  it.  The 
requisite  elevation  of  the  piece,  of  course,  depends 
upon  the  distance  of  the  object.  One  of  these  posi- 
tion-finders was  tested  at  Sandy  Hook  a  few  years  ago 
with  the  satisfactory  result  that  ten  consecutive  shots 
were  dropped  within  a  space  of  eight  and  a  half  yards 
wide  and  less  than  two  hundred  yards  long.  A  thor- 
oughly trained  modern  gunner  will  waste  few  shots  in 
firing  at  a  ship  several  miles  away. 

There  are  two  other  forms  of  modern  cannon  of 
which  we  have  already  spoken,  the  dynamite  gun  and 
the  torpedo-tube.  In  both  these,  on  account  of  the 
dangerous  character  of  their  explosives,  no  powerful 
charge  can  be  used,  compressed  air  being  usually  em- 
ployed. The  dynamite  gun,  while  forty  feet  long, 
has  a  barrel  of  f-inch  iron,  with  J-inch  brass  tubing. 

19 


2QO  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

The  projectile  is  of  brass,  forty  inches  long,  rotation 
being  given  it  by  spiral  vanes  fixed  to  its  base.  It  has 
a  conical  cast-iron  point,  twelve  inches  long.  At  a 
trial  in  1895  dynamite  shells  were  thrown  as  far  as  two 
thousand  five  hundred  yards,  and  one  containing  one 
hundred  pounds  of  dynamite  was  thrown  a  distance 
of  two  miles.  Great  accuracy  of  aim  was  attained. 
This  dangerous  weapon  is  an  object  of  dread  by  naval 
officers,  who  fear  that  the  shell  may  explode  in  the 
gun,  and  the  torpedo-tube  has  rarely  been  effectively 
employed.  They  are  both,  as  yet,  things  of  dreadful 
possibilities. 

The  main  means  of  defence  employed  in  modern 
naval  warfare  against  the  torpedo-tube,  with  its 
dreaded  projectile,  is  the  search-light,  an  adaptation 
of  the  electric  light  from  whose  searching  beam  it  is 
not  easy  for  anything  floating  to  escape.  This,  the 
gleaming  ray  of  the  electric  arc,  reflected  from  a  para- 
bolic mirror,  forms  the  most  intense  artificial  light 
known,  its  space-piercing  powers  being  extraordinary. 
The  great  search-light  displayed  at  the  Columbian 
Exposition  in  1893,  and  at  the  San  Francisco  Mid- 
winter Fair  in  1894,  is  now  on  Echo  Mountain,  Cali- 
fornia, and  throws  a  light  by  which  a  newspaper  may 
be  read  thirty-five  miles  away.  Its  light  is  visible  at 
the  island  of  San  Clemente,  one  hundred  and  five  miles 
distant,  and  it  is  impossible  to  say  how  far  it  might  be 
seen  but  for  the  convexity  of  the  earth. 

The  search-lights  used  on  ships  are  of  great  power, 
the  projectors  now  in  use  varying  from  three  thousand 
to  forty  thousand  candle-power.  Their  purpose  is  to 
illuminate  the  surface  of  the  neighboring  waters,  and 
it  is  desirable  to  have  them  as  near  the  water-line  as 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  291 

available,  that  they  may  have  a  more  direct  sweep.  So 
far,  in  the  contest  between  search-light  and  torpedo- 
boat,  the  former  has  come  out  victor,  but  in  this 
rivalry  eternal  vigilance  is  the  price  of  life,  for  a  min- 
ute's withdrawal  of  the  search-light  from  the  midnight 
waters  in  time  of  war  might  result  in  the  instant  de- 
struction of  the  greatest  battle-ship,  with  all  her  crew. 

The  search-light,  however,  considered  in  itself, 
would  be  of  no  avail  against  the  torpedo-boat.  Its 
mission  is  confined  to  the  discovery  of  this  agent  of 
destruction-;  to  stop  this  in  its  dread  mission  some- 
thing more  is  needed.  The  great  guns  of  cruiser  and 
battle-ship  would  be  useless  against  so  small  and  swift 
an  antagonist,  whose  crew,  reckless  of  death,  might 
discharge  their  deadly  missile  and  shoot  away  again 
before  a  shell  from  one  of  these  slow-acting  weapons 
could  reach  them.  The  exigency  has  been  met  in  the 
invention  of  the  rapid-fire  gun,  a  weapon  which 
sweeps  the  sea  with  such  a  shower  of  balls  that  the 
torpedo-boat  is  forced  to  fly  in  haste  to  escape  being 
riddled  like  a  sieve.  In  the  contest  between  torpedo 
and  ship  the  latter  seems  now  in  the  advance,  the 
search-light  and  rapid-fire  gun,  in  combination  with 
the  vigilance  of  disciplined  crews,  having  gone  far  to 
disarm  this  terrible  antagonist. 

It  is  not  only  against  the  torpedo-boat  that  this  new 
development  in  gunnery  is  of  service.  It  is  in  all  re- 
spects one  of  the  most  serviceable  weapons  of  war,  and 
some  account  of  its  evolution  is  here  in  place.  The 
rapid-fire  gun  had  its  origin  in  the  machine-gun,  of 
whose  early  forms  the  French  mitrailleuse  is  the  best 
known.  This  consisted  of  twenty-five  barrels  in  rows 
of  five,  the  breech-block  having  twenty-five  chambers, 


292  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

each  carrying  its  cartridge.  By  the  turning  of  a  crank 
these  were  rapidly  discharged,  while  several  breech- 
blocks were  loaded  in  advance.  The  Catling  gun,  the 
next  to  follow,  is  now,  in  its  perfected  form,  in  use  all 
over  the  world.  This  consists  of  a  cluster  of  rifle-bar- 
rels arranged  around  a  central  shaft  and  rotated  by  a 
crank.  The  magazine  contains  a  supply  of  cartridges, 
which  drop  down  and  are  rammed  home  one  after 
another  as  the  barrels  rotate.  This,  in  the  later  im- 
proved forms,  is  done  with  such  rapidity  that  the  gun 
can  discharge  its  balls  at  the  rate  of  three  thousand 
a  minute,  and  can  carry  in  its  limber  cartridges  for  ten 
thousand  rounds. 

The  Gardner  gun  has  only  two  barrels,  and  the  Nor- 
denfelt  from  two  to  seven,  placed  side  by  side.  They 
do  not  pour  out  bullets  at  the  enormous  rate  of  the 
Catling,  but  quite  rapidly  enough  for  effective  work. 
The  Maxim  machine-gun,  an  American  invention,  is 
so  arranged  as  to  be  automatic  in  its  action.  The 
operator  has  but  to  press  the  trigger  to  fire  the  first 
shot,  and  by  keeping  his  finger  on  it,  the  discharges 
rapidly  follow  until  the  magazine  is  empty,  the  recoil 
of  the  gun  supplying  the  power  for  loading  the  next 
cartridge.  The  Hotchkiss  revolving  cannon  has  bar- 
rels of  i^-inch  caliber,  a  single  mechanism  loading, 
firing,  and  extracting  the  empty  shells.  It  is  effective 
but  rather  cumbersome,  and  is  being  replaced  by 
rapid-fire  guns  of  the  same  caliber. 

Machine-guns  were  designed  for  service  against 
bodies  of  men,  not  against  the  sides  of  ships.  For  this 
purpose  something  intermediate  between  the  machine- 
gun,  pouring  out  its  balls  from  a  hopper,  and  the  great 
but  slow  cannon  was  needed,  and  the  coming  of  the 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  293 

torpedo-boat  expedited  its  appearance.  In  1877  came 
the  Nordenfelt  four-barrelled  gun,  of  i-inch  caliber, 
which  fired  in  a  minute  two  hundred  and  sixteen  shots 
large  enough  to  sink  any  torpedo-boat  of  that  day. 
But  faster  torpedo-boats  appeared,  their  vital  parts 
protected  with  coal,  and  to  meet  them  came  the 
Hotchkiss  3-  and  6-pounder  cannons,  adapted  to 
shell,  of  which  they  could  fire  twenty-five  to  thirty  a 
minute.  Six  of  these  small  guns,  of  2j-inch  caliber, 
can  fire  in  a  minute  a  weight  of  metal  equal  to  that  of 
the  projectile  of  the  great  1 2-inch  cannon,  and,  though 
of  far  less  penetrating  power,  they  still  are  able  to  play 
an  important  part  in  naval  warfare.  Even  if  two  only 
of  these  6-pounders  bore  on  a  coming  torpedo-boat, 
they  could  fire  fifty  shots  within  the  minute  she  would 
be  under  fire. 

But  a  new  type  of  craft  appeared,  the  torpedo-boat 
destroyer,  very  fast  vessels,  ranging  from  four  hun- 
dred to  twelve  hundred  tons.  Vessels  of  this  class 
could  defy  the  powers  of  the  6-pounder,  as  was 
demonstrated  in  1891,  in  the  battle  between  the  iron- 
clad Blanco  Encalada  and  the  torpedo  gunboats  Al- 
mirante  Lynch  and  Almirante  Coridell  in  Caldera  Bay, 
during  the  insurrection  in  Chili.  The  ironclad  car- 
ried three  6-pounders,  with  which  she  hit  her  assail- 
ants more  than  once,  yet  they  succeeded  in  torpedoing 
and  sinking  her.  Three  years  later  the  torpedo  gun- 
boat Sempaio  sunk  the  Aquidaban  off  Desterro,  Bra- 
zil, though  hit  more  than  thirty  times  by  machine- 
guns  in  her  approach.  Evidently  a  larger  quick-firing 
gun  was  needed,  and  it  quickly  came.  It  appeared, 
indeed,  before  the  fight  in  Caldera  Bay,  in  the  Arm- 
strong 47-inch  quick-firer,  a  great  advance  on  any- 


294  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

thing  that  had  been  produced  before,  but  which  was 
soon  followed  by  the  6-inch  gun,  capable  of  throwing 
loo-pound  shot,  as  against  the  45-pound  of  the  47- 
inch  gun. 

In  a  competitive  trial  at  Portsmouth,  England,  be- 
tween the  4.7-inch  rapid-fire  and  the  5-inch  service 
breech-loader,  it  was  found  that  the  new  piece  fired 
ten  rounds  in  forty-seven  seconds,  while  the  slow-firer 
took  five  minutes  and  seven  seconds  for  the  same 
task.  Thus  a  war-ship  with  the  new  gun  could  plant 
twelve  shots  into  a  torpedo-boat  where  the  old  gun 
could  plant  only  two.  And  in  the  first  case  there 
would  need  to  be  only  slight  changes  in  aim,  while  in 
the  second  the  change  would  be  considerable,  and 
time  lost  in  this.  It  may,  indeed,  be  said  that  the 
invention  of  the  quick-firer  has  robbed  the  torpedo  of 
half  its  terror.  Torpedo  netting  has  ceased  to  be  of 
use.  The  quick-firer  more  than  takes  its  place.  The 
torpedo-boat  is  still  a  thing  to  be  dreaded,  but  is  no 
longer  the  terrible  engine  of  war  that  it  was,  and  the 
day  may  come,  with  the  development  of  weapons  and 
means  of  defence,  that  it  will  be  abandoned  as  useless 
and  as  simply  a  coffin  for  its  crew. 

The  distinguishing  feature  of  the  rapid-fire  gun  lies 
in  its  breech  mechanism,  which  is  so  simplified  that 
the  operations  of  handling  and  loading  may  be  per- 
formed with  ease  and  rapidity.  The  movement  of 
the  breech-block  is  made  so  simple  that  it  needs  little 
more  than  the  touch  of  a  lever  to  remove  and  replace, 
the  same  movement  discharging  the  empty  shell.  The 
ammunition  in  the  smaller  guns  of  this  character  is 
made  up  like  a  rifle  cartridge,  the  powder  and  pro- 
jectile in  one  case.  In  the  larger  guns,  from  4-inch 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  295 

upward,  the  powder  and  projectile  are  separate,  for 
convenience  of  handling.  In  the  6-inch  gun,  for  in- 
stance, the  projectile  weighs  one  hundred  pounds, 
which  is  as  much  as  a  man  can  handle  with  the  neces- 
sary quickness.  This  gun  can  deliver  about  eight 
aimed  shots  a  minute. 

The  6-inch  gun  can  penetrate  fifteen  inches  of 
wrought  iron  at  the  muzzle  and  nine  inches  at  two 
thousand  yards,  and  about  half  that  thickness  of  the 
hardest  steel  armor  that  can  be  made.  Guns  of  this 
character,  firing  shells  loaded  with  some  of  the  pow- 
erful explosives  now  known,  are  capable  of  immense 
destruction.  They  can  riddle  the  more  lightly  pro- 
tected parts  of  ships,  and  their  shells,  if  bursting  under 
barbettes  and  turrets,  which  they  cannot  harm  directly, 
might  put  out  of  service  all  their  guns  at  a  blow.  In 
the  battle  of  the  Yalu  the  rapid-fire  guns  of  the  Jap- 
anese made  frightful  havoc  in  the  Chinese  ships,  tear- 
ing them  open,  mowing  down  every  man  in  their  track, 
setting  them  on  fire,  and  sending  two  of  them  to  the 
bottom. 

The  rapid-firing  gun  has  no  special  principle  that 
separates  it  from  the  slow-firer,  its  rapidity  being  due 
to  the  greater  quickness  in  opening  the  breech, — one 
motion  being  used  instead  of  two;  to  the  use  of  a 
cartridge-case,  which  saves  the  necessity  of  sponging 
out  the  gun  after  each  round ;  to  the  use  of  springs  to 
return  the  gun  at  once  from  the  recoil;  and  to  the 
sights  being  placed  in  the  carriage  instead  of  on  the 
gun,  so  that  the  gunner  can  aim  while  the  piece  is 
being  loaded. 

These  various  adaptations  make  up  the  rapid-firer, 
and  in  principle  there  is  no  limit  to  its  size,  though 


296  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

there  is  in  practice,  since  the  weight  of  the  projectile 
must  be  considered.  It  should  not  be  heavier  than 
one  man  can  handle  with  the  necessary  quickness.  In 
the  crew  of  the  6-inch  gun  one  man's  duty  is  to  han- 
dle the  loo-pound  shot,  and  to  do  this  six  times  a 
minute  is  as  much  as  any  man  can  stand  even  for  a 
few  minutes  at  a  time.  The  Armstrong  firm  has  pro- 
duced 8-inch  rapid-firers,  and  the  Canet  (French)  firm 
claims  to  have  made  rapid-fire  guns  of  94-inch  caliber. 
But  as  the  first  of  these  needs  a  projectile  of  over  two 
hundred  pounds,  and  the  second  one  of  three  hundred 
and  thirty  pounds,  it  is  obvious  that  these  great 
weights  cannot  be  handled  with  the  necessary  quick- 
ness. The  United  States  navy,  therefore,  limits  its 
quick-fire  guns  to  pieces  of  6-inch  caliber.  Yet  the 
principles  involved  can  be  applied  to  the  larger  guns 
and  the  rapidity  of  their  fire  increased  if  deemed  ne- 
cessary. 

As  regards  the  smaller  rapid-fire  guns,  which  make 
up  the  secondary  batteries  of  our  ships  of  war,  their 
quickness  of  action  is  phenomenal,  considering  that 
the  hopper  method  of  feeding  in  the  balls  is  not  used, 
as  in  the  machine-guns.  In  a  government  trial,  the 
Driggs-Schroeder  gun,  an  American  invention,  fired 
forty-three  shots  in  a  minute,  eighty-three  in  three 
minutes;  the  Hotchkiss  did  practically  the  same;  the 
Sponsel — made  in  Connecticut — somewhat  less,  and 
the  Maxim-Nordenfelt  twenty  in  a  minute,  sixty-five 
in  three  minutes.  The  time  taken  to  dismount  the 
gun  and  replace  it  in  firing  position  varied  from  about 
half  a  minute  to  three  minutes.  But  it  must  be  said 
that  results  like  these  can  be  had  only  under  the  most 
favorable  circumstances.  In  actual  practice  it  would 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  297 

be  physically  impossible  to  feed  the  guns  at  such  a 
rate,  and  so  rapid  a  fire  could  not  be  long  maintained 
without  overheating  them. 

From  all  this  it  is  evident  that  the  ship  which  lacks 
rapid-fire  guns  of  large  caliber  is  obsolete  as  com- 
pared with  the  ship  that  possesses  them,  while  the 
smaller  guns  are  considered  equally  indispensable. 
On  ship-board  machine-guns  are  usually  placed  in  the 
fighting-tops  of  the  military  masts,  where  they  can 
sweep  the  deck  of  an  opponent.  The  i-  to  6-pounder 
rapid-fire  pieces  are  placed  in  the  tops  or  on  the  bridge 
or  higher  deck,  for  similar  purposes,  while  the  4- 
to  6-inch  guns  are  placed  in  sponsons  built  out  on 
the  ship's  sides  or  behind  gun-screens  on  the  main 
deck.  While  it  is  true  that  a  single  well-directed  shot 
from  a  1 3-inch  cannon  may  disable  a  heavily  armored 
antagonist,  yet  greater  dependence  is  to  be  placed  on 
the  smaller  armor-piercing  shells,  which  can  be  dis- 
charged, with  accurate  aim,  at  the  rate  of  six  to  eight 
a  minute,  with  force  enough  to  penetrate  the  thinner 
steel  of  the  sponsons  and  gun-shields  and  burst  with 
deadly  effect  among  the  gunners. 

Rapid-fire  guns  are  usually  provided  with  a  shield, 
a  steel  plate  from  half  an  inch  to  several  inches  in 
thickness.  This  is  pierced  to  allow  about  half  the  bar- 
rel to  protrude,  and  an  upright  slit  running  from  the 
centre  nearly  to  the  top  allows  the  gunner  to  sight  his 
piece.  The  shield  is  sometimes  vertical,  sometimes  its 
upper  edge  is  inclined  backward  at  an  angle  of  45 
degrees,  so  that  a  projectile  striking  it  may  glance  off. 
Guns  of  this  character  would  soon  grow  too  hot  to 
handle  if  long  used,  but  they  are  rarely  employed  for 
more  than  a  few  minutes  at  a  time,  and  do  not  have 
the  opportunity  to  become  heated. 


298  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 


CHAPTER   III. 

POWDER  AND  PROJECTILES. 

IN  the  evolution  of  modern  ordnance  the  character 
of  the  explosive  used  has  become  a  question  of  high 
importance,  many  improvements  having  taken  place 
in  the  manufacture  of  gunpowder,  while  numerous 
other  explosives  have  come  into  use.  In  former  times 
there  was  a  neat  simplicity  about  powder.  Two  kinds 
were  used,  one  of  fine  grain  for  muskets,  and  the  other 
of  large  grain  for  cannon,  and  little  thought  was  given 
to  the  question  of  quality.  The  development  of  rifled 
artillery  has  directed  careful  attention  to  the  charac- 
teristics of  explosives,  particularly  those  used  in  the 
larger  cannon,  where  a  slow-burning  powder  became 
imperative.  This  was  for  two  reasons.  A  large 
charge  of  quick-burning  powder  would  bring  an 
enormous  pressure  upon  the  powder  chamber  of  the 
gun  before  the  projectile  had  begun  to  move,  while 
the  pressure  would  decrease  as  the  projectile  moved 
down  the  bore.  This  dangerous  initial  pressure  was 
overcome  by  the  adoption  of  slow-burning  powders, 
which,  while  not  straining  the  breech,  exerted  a 
steadily  increasing  pressure  on  the  projectile,  pushing 
it  with  the  greatest  energy  at  the  instant  it  was  leaving 
the  muzzle  of  the  gun.  In  this  way  much  higher  muz- 
zle velocities  might  be  attained,  with  decreased  strain 
upon  the  gun. 

The  adoption  of  slow-burning  powder  had  its  effect 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  299 

upon  the  length  of  the  gun.  If  the  gun  was  too  short, 
the  projectile  would  be  driven  out  before  all  the  pow- 
der was  burned,  and  a  large  portion  of  tfie  powder 
would  be  wasted,  being  blown  out  unconsumed.  An 
instantaneous  photograph  of  a  gun  at  the  moment  of 
discharge  shows  this,  the  unburned  portions  of  the 
powder  appearing  like  a  hail  of  small  projectiles.  This 
fact  has  led  to  the  lengthening  of  guns  in  order  to 
utilize  all  the  force  of  the  powder,  it  being  found  that 
a  long  gun  of  small  caliber  is  equally  effective  with  a 
short  one  of  larger  caliber. 

To  produce  a  slow-burning  powder,  it  is  necessary 
to  form  it  in  grains  of  considerable  size,  compressed 
in  moulds  into  cubes  or  other  forms,  those  of  the 
greater  density  being  the  slower  burning.  A  highly 
glazed  powder  also  burns  more  slowly  than  an  un- 
glazed  one,  the  glaze  retarding  the  action  of  the  fire. 
The  powder  itself  is  of  two  kinds,  the  ordinary  black, 
and  the  brown  powder,  the  latter  being  made  from 
straw  instead  of  wood,  and  having  a  larger  proportion 
of  carbon  and  a  smaller  proportion  of  sulphur,  the 
proportion  of  saltpetre  remaining  nearly  the  same. 

Of  late  years  all  these  points  have  received  close  at- 
tention, and  the  kind  of  powder  used  is  closely  adapted 
to  the  character  of  the  gun,  each  class  and  caliber  of 
cannon  needing  a  special  powder.  A  powder  com- 
posed of  comparatively  small  grains  of  irregular  size 
and  shape  burns  with  great  rapidity,  and  almost  in- 
stantaneously gives  rise  to  a  large  volume  of  gas,  the 
pressure  in  the  bore  of  the  gun  being  sometimes  as 
high  as  sixty  tons  to  the  square  inch.  In  the  large 
hexagonal  prisms  now  made,  of  an  inch  or  more  in 
diameter,  the  pressure  has  been  reduced  to  about 


300  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

fifteen  tons,  while  the  velocity  of  the  projectile  is 
greatly  increased.  In  1870  the  initial  velocity  of  pro- 
jectiles ranged  from  one  thousand  to  thirteen  hundred 
feet  a  second.  At  present  velocities  of  from  two  thou- 
sand to  two  thousand  six  hundred  are  attained,  with 
low  pressure  on  the  bore  of  the  gun. 

One  defect,  however,  was  found  to  exist  in  the  large 
grains  of  pebble  or  prismatic  powder.  When  lighted 
on  the  surface,  the  burning  area  was  largest  at  first 
and  rapidly  decreased  as  the  grain  grew  smaller. 
Hence  the  maximum  pressure  on  the  bore  appeared 
almost  before  the  projectile  began  to  move.  This 
difficulty  has  been  overcome  by  an  American  artil- 
lery officer,  General  Rodman,  who  conceived  the 
idea  of  piercing  a  hole  through  the  centre  of  each 
large  grain  or  pellet  of  powder.  This  burned  in- 
teriorly, the  area  widening  as  that  of  the  outer  sur- 
face narrowed,  so  that  the  evolution  of  gas  was  kept 
uniform  and  the  pressure  upon  the  projectile  steady. 
Of  course,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  expres- 
sion "slow-burning"  in  the  above  remarks  is  to  be 
taken  in  only  a  comparative  sense.  Slow  and  rapid 
burning,  as  applied  to  explosives,  means  the  difference 
between  nearly  and  quite  instantaneous. 

Powder  has  taken  steps  of  development  beyond 
those  here  indicated,  it  being  thought  desirable  to 
produce  a  powder  of  higher  initial  velocity,  with  low 
pressure,  and  with  a  reduction  in  the  quantity  of 
smoke.  Within  late  years  a  number  of  powders  have 
been  invented  which  possess  these  requisites,  their 
practically  smokeless  character  being  one  of  their 
chief  features  of  utility.  There  are  several  classes  of 
these,  composed  of  nitroglycerin  or  other  nitrates,  or 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  301 

nitre-derivatives  of  picric  acid  and  other  hydrocar- 
bons. These  powders  are  found  to  impart  much 
higher  velocity  to  projectiles  than  ordinary  gun- 
powder, without  increase  of  pressure,  the  best  of  them 
being  those  which  give  maximum  velocity  with  least 
pressure,  and  without  chemical  change  when  in  the 
magazine.  Various  explosives  of  this  kind  are  liable 
to  such  injurious  changes. 

Cordite,  the  powder  of  this  kind  used  in  the  British 
navy,  has  received  its  name  from  its  resemblance, 
when  manufactured,  to  a  gray  cord.  It  is  more  power- 
ful than  ordinary  powder,  and  nearly  smokeless.  In- 
durite  is  the  kind  adopted  for  the  United  States  navy. 
In  the  trials  of  this  at  the  Indian  Head  proving- 
grounds,  it  was  found  that  a  26-pound  charge  fired 
from  a  6-inch  gun  gave  to  a  zoo-pound  ball  an  initial 
velocity  of  2469  feet  per  second,  while  its  pressure  on 
the  chamber  was  only  13.96  foot-tons.  It  must  be 
borne  in  mind,  however,  that  results  like  this  do  not 
fully  indicate  the  value  of  any  of  the  new  powders, 
since  they  may  have  detrimental  qualities  which 
greatly  reduce  their  usefulness  in  practice.  The  ten- 
dency to  alter  in  composition  while  in  the  magazine 
is  the  chief  of  these.  The  explosive  may  not  only 
deteriorate,  but  become  dangerous. 

In  truth,  the  magazines  of  modern  war-vessels  are 
regions  of  constant  danger,  and  demand  an  incessant 
supervision.  Fires  are  likely  to  break  out  in  the  coal- 
bunkers,  whose  heat  may  penetrate  to  the  magazines, 
and  precautions  against  this  peril  are  necessary.  It 
is  not  long  since  serious  fires  occurred  on  both  the 
New  York  and  the  Cincinnati  from  spontaneous  com- 
bustion of  coal,  and  a  radical  reconstruction  of  the 


302  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

coal-bunkers  of  our  ships  was  deemed  necessary.  In 
the  British  navy  linings  of  asbestos  and  other  non- 
conducting materials  surround  the  magazines.  France 
and  Germany  drive  cold  air  into  the  surrounding 
spaces.  In  Italian  ships  provision  is  made  for  the  es- 
cape of  gas  that  may  be  produced  in  the  magazines. 
In  our  new  battle-ships  a  double  bulkhead  is  to  be 
employed,  with  four  inches  of  air-space  between  the 
bunkers  and  the  magazines,  and  with  provision  for  a 
good  circulation  of  air  through  this  space. 

Improvement  in  powder  has  been  accompanied  by 
a  like  improvement  in  projectiles.  With  an  immense 
propelling  power  behind  and  rigid  steel  armor  in 
front,  the  metal  between  found  itself  in  an  awkward 
situation.  Cast-iron  shot  was  found  to  break  up 
against  armor  like  a  snow-ball,  and  wrought-iron  pro- 
jectiles flattened  against  the  hard  surface  like  so  much 
lead.  The  armor-plates  suffered  little,  the  energy 
being  spent  on  the  projectile.  The  first  step  out  of 
this  difficulty  was  made  by  Captain  Palliser,  who  suc- 
ceeded in  hardening  the  front  portion  of  a  shot  by 
chilling,  with  the  result  that  shot  of  this  kind  were 
able  to  penetrate  wrought  iron  without  breaking  up 
or  flattening.  These  shot  are  of  cylindrical  shape, 
with  a  pointed  head,  which  acts  like  a  punch  upon  the 
armor,  into  which  it  is  pushed  by  the  energy  of  the 
shot  behind.  These  shot  have  the  advantage  of  cheap- 
ness, and  would  still  be  of  use  against  thinly  armored 
ships,  but  steel  shot  are  needed  to  penetrate  the  armor 
now  made. 

The  projectiles  now  used  with  rifled  cannon  are  in 
great  part  shells.  In  old  times  these  were  of  cast  iron, 
spherical  in  form,  with  time-fuses  for  their  explosion. 


THE   NATION'S  NAVY.  303 

Those  used  in  rifled  cannon  are  of  elongated  and 
cylindrical  form,  and  as  their  revolving  movement 
gives  assurance  that  the  conical  end  shall  strike  first, 
they  can  be  used  with  percussion  priming,  which  ex- 
plodes the  shell  on  striking  the  object  at  which  it  is 
aimed.  They  are  loaded  with  powder  or  some  of  the 
high  explosives  now  in  use,  the  shells  employed  for 
the  latter  having  thick  walls  and  small  loading  cham- 
bers. Gun-cotton  is  most  commonly  used  for  this 
purpose,  it  being  considered  the  most  reliable  of  the 
high  explosives.  Efforts  are  now  being  made  to  re- 
tard the  explosion  of  armor-piercing  shells,  in  order 
that  they  may  penetrate  more  deeply  before  the  ex- 
plosion takes  place,  the  hope  being  entertained  that 
by  such  retardation,  and  the  use  of  explosives  of 
higher  power,  greater  damage  to  the  plate  may  result 
and  the  gun  regain  some  of  its  lost  supremacy. 

The  heavy  guns  now  used  in  the  United  States  navy, 
as  has  been  already  indicated  in  the  preceding  pages, 
are  of  10-,  12-,  and  1 3-inch  aperture,  their  weight  in 
tons  being  respectively  27.6,  45.2,  and  60.5.  It  is  well 
to  state  here  that  in  British  practice  the  grade  of  guns 
is  indicated  by  their  weight  in  tons,  in  American  by 
the  diameter  of  the  bore.  Of  these  guns,  the  1 3-inch 
is  forty  feet  long,  its  charge  of  powder  weighing  five 
hundred  and  fifty,  its  projectile  eleven  hundred 
pounds,  while  the  muzzle  velocity  of  its  projectile  is 
two  thousand  one  hundred  feet  per  second,  and  its 
penetrating  power  34.6  inches  of  wrought  iron,  equiva- 
lent to  about  half  that  thickness  of  steel.  The  heaviest 
guns  used  in  fortifications  in  this  country  are  of  16- 
inch  caliber,  the  heaviest  abroad  1 7-inch.  Of  these, 
the  American  1 6-inch  gun,  of  one  hundred  and  forty 


304  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

tons  weight,  is  heavier  than  the  1 7-inch  gun  of  Euro- 
pean forts. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  dynamite 
cartridge,  discharged  from  the  pneumatic  gun,  which 
constitutes  the  weapon  of  two  of  our  war-vessels, — the 
Vesuvius  and  the  recently  purchased  Buffalo  (the 
Brazilian  Nictheroy).  The  projectile  of  this  gun  is 
really  a  huge  flying  torpedo,  charged  with  dynamite, 
and  intended  to  produce  its  effect  on  the  upper 
works  of  a  vessel  instead  of  upon  the  lower  hull,  as 
in  the  ordinary  torpedo.  For  the  5o-foot  gun,  of 
15-inch  caliber,  the  charge  is  five  hundred  pounds 
of  dynamite.  This  can  be  sent  with  fair  aim  the 
distance  of  a  mile  and  a  half,  and  an  8-inch  pro- 
jectile, with  one  hundred  pounds  of  dynamite,  is 
calculated  to  do  good  service  at  two  miles.  The  claim 
is  that  the  dynamite  shell  does  not  need  to  strike  a 
ship,  but  that  if  it  struck  the  water  within  thirty  yards 
and  exploded,  no  ship  could  live  in  the  awful  concus- 
sion produced.  But  accurate  practice  with  this  gun 
is  difficult  and  dynamite  itself  a  treacherous  substance 
to  handle,  and  there  seems  no  inclination  to  arm  any 
other  vessels  with  this  gun.  No  nation  of  Europe  has 
adopted  it. 

The  locomotive  torpedo  has  had  many  more  years 
of  development  than  the  Zalinski  dynamite  tube,  and 
has  been  taken  up  with  avidity  by  all  maritime  nations, 
though  its  effect  is  in  a  somewhat  similar  position  of 
doubt.  There  is  no  doubt,  indeed,  as  to  its  destructive 
character,  but  the  means  of  defence  against  it,  as 
already  stated,  have  become  so  developed  as  to  rob  it 
largely  of  its  terrors.  The  development  of  the  auto- 
mobile or  self-propelling  torpedo  was  due  to  Mr. 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  305 

Whitehead,  an  English  civil  engineer  residing  in  Aus- 
tria, and  owed  its  original  suggestion  to  the  danger 
attending  the  use  of  the  spar  or  outrigger  torpedo,  the 
kind  employed  in  the  Civil  War.  The  risk  of  dis- 
covery when  close  to  the  vessel  to  be  attacked  was  so 
great  that  inventors  began  to  consider  the  possibility 
of  discharging  a  torpedo  from  a  boat  at  a  moderate 
distance.  The  original  conception  was  that  of  a  small 
sort  of  boat  with  mechanism  to  propel  it  for  some 
distance  along  the  surface  and  carrying  in  its  bow 
a  charge  of  gunpowder,  to  be  exploded  on  contact. 
This  idea  was  broached  by  an  Austrian  officer  to  Mr. 
Whitehead,  and  from  it  he  gradually  evolved  the  in- 
tricate piece  of  mechanism  now  known  by  his  name, 
and  which  has  become  a  part  of  the  armament  of  all 
the  navies  of  the  world. 

In  the  development  of  his  conception  the  inventor 
had  several  things  to  consider.  First  of  these  was  the 
mode  of  propulsion.  For  various  reasons  neither 
steam,  electricity,  nor  gunpowder  was  suitable,  and  he 
finally  fixed  upon  compressed  air,  which  was  to 
operate  a  small  engine  and  turn  a  screw  in  the  rear  of 
his  device,  which  he  proposed  to  use  as  a  small  self- 
moving  screw  vessel.  He  next  felt  it  necessary  that 
the  torpedo  must  play  the  part  of  a  fish,  moving  under 
water.  An  explosion  on  the  surface,  against  the 
water-line  of  a  ship,  would  be  of  little  advantage,  since 
most  of  the  gas  yielded  by  the  gun-cotton  would  es- 
cape into  the  air.  If  submerged,  the  water  would  con- 
fine the  gas,  and  all  its  force  be  exerted  on  the  ship. 
A  charge  of  sufficient  size  would  rend  open  the 
strongest  vessel  ever  built. 

It  was  necessary,  therefore,  not  only  to  make  the 

20 


3o6  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

torpedo  move  under  water,  but  to  prevent  it  rising  to 
the  surface  through  its  buoyancy,  which  would  in- 
crease as  the  compressed  air  lost  density  through  es- 
cape of  that  portion  working  the  engine.  This  diffi- 
culty was  overcome  by  an  ingenious  contrivance,  in 
which  Mr.  Whitehead  utilized  the  pressure  of  water  at 
different  depths  to  control  horizontal  rudders,  so  that 
a  sinking  torpedo  might  be  steered  upward  and  a 
rising  one  be  steered  downward. 

The  Whitehead  torpedo  became,  therefore,  a  con- 
trivance of  three  chambers,  one  holding  the  engine,  a 
second  the  tank  of  compressed  air  and  a  buoyancy 
section,  and  a  third  the  explosive,  originally  gun- 
powder, but  now  the  more  powerful  gun-cotton,  of 
which  a  much  lighter  charge  needs  to  be  used.  The 
ignition  is  effected  by  the  impact  of  the  nose  of  the 
torpedo  against  any  hard  surface,  the  result  being  to 
force  a  pointed  striker  against  a  detonating  cap  con- 
nected with  the  charge. 

The  torpedo  thus  constructed  is  a  fish-shaped  body 
of  steel  or  iron  capable  of  moving  at  a  depth  of  from 
five  to  twenty  feet  under  water,  at  high  speed  for  a 
short  distance,  or  for  a  greater  distance  if  the  speed 
be  reduced.  Mr.  Whitehead's  invention  demonstrated 
its  efficiency  so  thoroughly  on  trial  that  it  was  quickly 
adopted  by  nearly  every  maritime  nation.  The  only 
adverse  criticism  that  could  be  offered  was  its  slow 
speed,  which  at  first  was  about  eight  knots.  If  dis- 
charged at  a  vessel  at  a  considerable  distance  it  might 
very  readily  be  swerved  from  the  exact  direction  in  the 
time  needed,  or  lose  its  aim  through  change  of  posi- 
tion in  the  vessel  aimed  at.  It  was  greatly  improved 
when  the  speed  was  increased  to  eighteen  knots  by 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  307 

using  a  three-cylinder  air-engine,  while  the  reduced 
weight  of  gun-cotton  as  compared  with  gunpowder 
permitted  a  smaller  torpedo  to  be  used.  As  thus  im- 
proved, it  was  fourteen  feet  long,  its  largest  diameter 
being  fourteen  inches.  Its  total  weight  was  about  five 
hundred  pounds.  Later  improvements  brought  the 
speed  up  to  twenty-seven  knots  for  a  distance  of  six 
hundred  yards.  It  now  carried  a  charge  of  sixty 
pounds  of  gun-cotton,  equivalent  to  about  two  hun- 
dred pounds  of  powder.  No  ships,  as  then  con- 
structed, could  have  withstood  the  explosion  of  such  a 
charge.  As  a  defence  against  it  the  double-bottom 
system  was  extended,  and  the  suggestion  was  made 
that  the  bottoms  of  ships  might  be  protected  with 
armor.  But  these  defensive  efforts  would  be  useless 
against  the  torpedo  in  its  present  development,  its 
speed  having  been  increased  to  thirty  knots,  its  di- 
ameter to  eighteen  inches,  and  its  charge  to  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  pounds  of  the  explosive.  If  necessary, 
the  weight  of  gun-cotton  could  be  still  further  in- 
creased. 

Not  only  torpedo-boats  and  destroyers,  but  battle- 
ships and,  to  some  extent,  cruisers  are  equipped  with 
launching  tubes,  two  to  four  in  number,  for  expelling 
these  dangerous  self-moving  projectiles.  The  tube 
needs  but  little  strength,  and  is  only  of  the  length 
necessary  to  contain  the  torpedo.  As  the  latter  is 
smaller  at  the  ends  than  in  the  middle,  a  light  frame- 
work of  wood  is  built  around  it  in  the  bore  to  keep 
it  aimed  correctly.  It  may  be  ejected  by  a  small 
charge  of  powder,  a  jet  of  water,  or  a  little  compressed 
air,  the  first  of  these  being  usually  employed  in  Ameri- 
can practice.  It  is  only  necessary  to  get  it  out  of  the 


3o8  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

tube  in  the  proper  direction.    The  discharge  sets  its 
machinery  in  operation,  and  this  will  do  the  rest. 

Most  of  our  large  ships  of  war  are  equipped  with 
the  Whitehead  torpedo,  but  in  some  cases  the  Howell 
is  employed.  This  is  an  American  invention,  pro- 
duced by  Rear-Admiral  Howell,  of  our  navy,  in  1871. 
It  is  similar  to  the  Whitehead  in  appearance,  yet  en- 
tirely different  in  its  motive  power.  A  very  heavy  fly- 
wheel is  contained  within  the  shell,  which  is  set  spin- 
ning at  the  high  velocity  of  ten  thousand  revolutions  a 
minute  by  a  suitable  motor  just  before  the  torpedo 
is  discharged.  No  engine  is  needed  within  the  shell 
itself,  the  stored-up  energy  of  the  wheel  being  suffi- 
cient to  turn  the  propeller  screws  and  drive  the  tor- 
pedo at  a  high  rate  of  speed  towards  the  ship  aimed 
at.  The  revolving  wheel  also  serves  to  keep  the  mo- 
tion uniform  in  direction,  it  acting  on  the  principle  of 
the  gyroscope. 

The  latter  principle  is  now  adopted  in  the  White- 
head  torpedo,  as  manufactured  for  the  American  navy 
in  the  large  torpedo  factory  at  Brooklyn.  Neither 
current  nor  obstruction  can  turn  one  of  these  im- 
proved torpedoes  out  of  its  course,  the  gyroscope 
acting  forcibly  on  the  rudder  to  bring  it  back  to  its 
proper  direction.  It  can  be  prevented  from  making  a 
lateral  variation  of  more  than  three  yards  in  eight 
hundred,  the  distance  for  which  it  is  set.  There  are 
also  devices  to  prevent  premature  explosion,  and  to 
render  the  torpedo  practically  harmless  if  it  should 
miss  its  mark. 

The  depth  of  the  torpedo  is  now  regulated  by  pendu- 
lum motion.  If  it  should  turn  downward,  a  backward 
swing  of  the  heavy  pendulum  would  act  on  the  rudder 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  309 

to  bring  it  up.  If  it  should  tend  to  rise,  the  opposite 
swing  of  the  pendulum  would  prevent.  These  tor- 
pedoes are  thoroughly  tested  in  Peconic  Bay,  Sag 
Harbor>  Long  Island,  over  a  course  of  one  thousand 
yards.  A  final  test  is  made  at  the  government  station 
at  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  where  several  practice  runs 
are  given  the  torpedo.  Not  until  it  has  been  thor- 
oughly proved  is  the  charge,  two  hundred  pounds  of 
gun-cotton,  put  in. 

The  actual  utility  of  the  automobile  torpedo  in  war 
remains  to  be  demonstrated.  A  statement  has  been 
made  by  Mr.  H.  W.  Wilson  of  the  result  of  twenty- 
seven  actions  in  which  it  has  been  used.  It  appears 
that  out  of  twenty-one  ships  attacked  when  at  anchor, 
twelve  were  sunk.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  not  a 
single  instance  in  which  a  ship  in  motion  has  received 
the  slightest  damage  from  a  torpedo.  The  first  at- 
tempt of  this  kind  was  made  by  the  British  ship  Shah 
against  the  Huascar,  and  at  the  battle  of  the  Yalu  one 
of  the  Chinese  ships  discharged  nearly  all  its  torpedoes 
without  the  least  injury  to  the  enemy.  During  the 
revolution  in  Chili  against  President  Balmaceda  the 
torpedo-boats  Almirante  Lynch  and  Almirante  Con- 
dell  attacked  the  ironclad  Blanco  Encalada  at  anchor, 
taking  her  completely  by  surprise.  They  approached 
within  three  hundred  yards,  and  each  discharged  two 
torpedoes,  none  of  which  struck  the  ship.  Then  the 
Lynch  turned  and  passed  the  Encalada  within  fifty 
yards,  discharging  another  torpedo,  which  struck  the 
ironclad  amidships.  The  shock  was  tremendous,  the 
vessel  heeled  over,  then  rolled  back,  and  the  water 
poured  into  the  large  gap  made  in  her  bottom.  She 
sank  within  five  minutes.  This  torpedo  was  one  of 


3io  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

small  size,  carrying  about  sixty  pounds  of  gun-cot- 
ton. 

In  the  latest  naval  war,  that  between  Spain  and  the 
United  States,  the  torpedo-boat  failed  to  prove  its 
efficacy  against  the  search-light  and  the  rapid-fire  gun. 
Of  two  which  attacked  Admiral  Dewey's  fleet  at 
Manila,  one  was  riddled  and  sent  to  the  bottom  and 
the  other  barely  escaped  the  same  fate.  At  Santiago 
de  Cuba  vigilance  on  the  part  of  the  Americans  pre- 
vented an  attack  by  the  Spanish  torpedo-boats  in  the 
harbor. 

The  torpedoes  described  are  intended  for  use  from 
ships.  There  is  another  class,  known  as  dirigible  tor- 
pedoes, intended  for  harbor  protection,  they  being  sent 
off  from  shore,  from  which  they  are  directed  through- 
out their  course  by  the  aid  of  attached  wires.  Of 
these,  there  are  a  number  of  different  inventions,  as 
the  Lay,  the  Brennan,  the  Sims-Edison,  etc.  The 
Lay  torpedo,  invented  about  1872,  is  one  of  the 
earliest.  This  is  a  cigar-shaped  craft,  about  thirty  feet 
long  and  three  inches  wide,  formed  of  iron  plates,  and 
water-  and  air-tight.  It  has  three  compartments,  re- 
spectively for  motive  power,  machinery,  and  electrical 
apparatus.  Compressed  carbonic  acid  gas  serves  for 
the  motive  power,  it  being  sufficient  in  quantity  to 
drive  a  pair  of  engines  of  eight  horse-power  for  half 
an  hour,  during  which  the  craft  can  traverse  six  or 
eight  miles.  The  machinery  is  controllable  by  wires 
leading  to  a  battery  on  shore,  the  cable  containing 
the  wires  being  paid  out  as  the  boat  moves.  By  the 
aid  of  an  electric  current  the  throttle-valve  of  the 
engine  can  be  controlled  by  one  wire  and  the  rudder 
by  another.  The  vessel  is  almost  completely  sub- 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  311 

merged,  and,  being  painted  green,  is  difficult  to  see 
at  short  distances.  The  magazine  contains  a  large 
charge  of  powder  or  nitroglycerin,  and  in  its  forward 
part  are  explosive  shells,  which  can  be  fired  by  an 
electric  spark  sent  through  a  third  wire  in  the  cable. 
Two  guide-rods,  one  at  each  end  of  the  vessel,  mark 
its  position  in  the  water,  and  it  may  by  aid  of  the  wires 
be  steered  directly  against  the  vessel  to  be  attacked. 

The  Sims-Edison,  also  of  the  steerable  class,  made 
its  appearance  about  1885.  It  is  cigar-shaped,  con- 
taining the  explosive  in  its  forward  section,  while  the 
next  section  holds  a  cylindrical  case  in  which  is  coiled 
an  electric  cable  to  be  paid  out  as  in  the  case  of  the 
Lay.  In  the  centre  is  a  little  electric  motor  to  drive 
the  propeller  screw,  and  the  steering  mechanism  is 
in  the  after  section.  Its  speed  is  about  twelve  knots. 
Above  the  torpedo  is  a  long,  buoyant  float,  from 
which  rise  little  masts,  bearing  balls  designed  to  aid 
the  steersman  on  shore  in  directing  its  course,  or  small 
signal  flags  may  be  used  by  day  and  colored  lights  at 
night.  The  float  is  impenetrable  to  machine-gun  balls. 
The  cable  is  extremely  flexible,  about  two  miles  in 
length,  and  contains  an  outer  and  an  inner  conductor, 
the  first  of  which  conveys  a  current  for  driving  the 
motor  in  the  torpedo,  while  the  current  in  the  other 
excites  the  magnets  which  control  the  steering  gear. 
In  a  trial  in  1891  it  attained  a  speed  of  twenty  knots. 
It  is  capable  of  carrying  five  hundred  pounds  of  ex- 
plosives. 

The  Brennan  torpedo  carries  inside  it  two  drums  on 
which  are  wound  piano  wire.  This  passes  out  of  the 
rear  of  the  device  and  is  connected  with  powerful  en- 
gines on  shore.  When  these  are  started,  the  wire  is 


3i2  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

reeled  off  the  drums  and  on  to  large  drums  on  shore, 
the  motion  of  the  drums  in  the  torpedo  revolving  two 
screw  propellers,  which  drive  the  craft  through  the 
water.  Steering  is  effected  by  winding  on  one  drum 
faster  than  on  the  other,  this  moving  the  rudder  of  the 
torpedo  in  the  requisite  direction. 

The  Victoria  torpedo  is  somewhat  similar  to  the 
Sims-Edison,  but  differs  from  the  latter  in  being  en- 
tirely submerged  below  the  water  and  in  using  air  as 
its  motive  power.  When  it  is  started  it  hauls  a  cable 
after  it,  unwinding  it  off  a  reel  on  shore,  and  the  first 
part  of  its  course  is  covered  at  a  moderate  speed. 
When  the  operator  has  guided  it  to  within  striking 
distance  of  the  enemy  a  current  is  sent  through  the 
cable,  which  releases  the  reel  on  the  torpedo  and 
allows  its  end  of  the  cable  to  unwind.  At  the  same 
time  the  current  starts  the  air-engine  at  full  speed 
and  the  final  dash  for  the  ship  is  made.  It  has  a 
pendulum  mechanism  to  preserve  its  balance. 

The  Patrick  torpedo  is  of  large  size,  forty  feet  in 
length,  and  is  driven  by  carbonic  acid  gas,  it  being 
maintained  at  the  desired  depth  by  a  buoyant  float  on 
the  surface.  A  cable  of  two  wires  connects  it  with 
the  shore,  from  which,  as  in  the  case  of  the  others 
named,  it  can  be  steered,  and  exploded  at  the  right 
moment.  The  Nordenfelt  torpedo  uses  an  electric 
motor  supplied  by  a  storage  battery  as  its  source  of 
power.  It  is  supplied  with  two  floats,  which  keep  it 
at  a  depth  of  six  to  eight  feet.  The  Hall  torpedo  re- 
.  sembles  the  Whitehead  in  its  use  of  compressed  air  as 
a  motive  power.  It  has  a  telescopic  tube  to  regulate 
its  depth  and  a  righting  valve.  The  telescope  tube 
can  be  thrust  out  into  the  water  or  withdrawn  into  the 


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THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  313 

torpedo,  making  it  lighter  in  the  first  instance  by  in- 
creasing its  air  capacity,  while  in  the  latter  it  reduces 
the  buoyancy  of  the  apparatus. 

The  latest  of  these  devices,  the  Halpine  torpedo,  an 
American  invention,  is  a  cylindrical  apparatus  of  cop- 
per, twenty-four  feet  long  and  two  feet  in  diameter. 
Its  power  is  derived  from  storage  batteries,  which  are 
capable  of  giving  it  a  twelve-mile  run.  Two  wire 
cables,  each  two  and  a  half  miles  long,  are  coiled  in- 
side, and  uncoil  as  it  moves,  connecting  the  craft  with 
the  operator  on  shore.  It  shows  only  three  inches 
above  water  and  can  be  sunk  to  fifteen  feet,  it  being 
visible  at  night  by  two  lights,  which  reflect  backward 
so  as  not  to  be  seen  by  an  enemy,  and  which  advise 
the  operator  of  the  position  and  direction  of  move- 
ment of  the  sunken  craft.  The  wires  enable  him  to 
steer  and  otherwise  control  it.  This  torpedo  has  an 
apparatus  for  cutting  through  the  protective  netting 
around  a  vessel.  From  the  stem  there  projects  a  long 
spar  bearing  in  front  a  steel  harpoon  to  pierce  the  net, 
while  two  expanded  arms,  by  their  pressure  against 
the  net,  push  the  spar  back,  strike  the  tripper,  and  set 
in  train  a  mechanism  which  quickly  explodes  the 
charge.  The  boat  can  be  drawn  back  out  of  danger, 
leaving  behind  the  harpoon,  which  clings  to  the  net  by 
a  hook-like  arrangement,  and  its  connective  torpedo. 
The  speed  of  this  craft  is  nineteen  knots  per  hour. 

As  may  be  perceived  from  the  foregoing  descrip- 
tion, invention  has  been  busy  in  devising  apparatus 
of  this  character  for  harbor  protection.  These  con- 
trivances, too,  seem  capable  of  use  from  ship-board, 
though  they  are  not  likely  to  replace  the  automobile 
torpedo  for  that  purpose.  There  is  no  instance  on 


3i4  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

record  of  their  practical  use  in  harbors,  the  land  bat- 
tery and  the  submarine  mine  being  at  present  de- 
pended upon  for  harbor  defence.  With  a  description 
of  the  latter,  in  the  following  chapter,  we  shall  com- 
plete our  account  of  the  mechanical  appliances  used 
in  modern  naval  warfare. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

MINES   AND   FORTIFICATIONS. 

THE  idea  of  the  planted  torpedo  appears  to  have 
originated  with  Robert  Fulton,  who,  in  addition  to 
his  experiments  with  submarine  torpedo-boats  and 
with  drifting  torpedoes,  proposed  the  planting  of  tor- 
pedoes in  river  and  harbor  channels,  anchoring  them 
to  the  bottom,  but  leaving  them  buoyant  enough  to 
float  at  the  requisite  distance  beneath  the  surface. 
These  torpedoes  were  to  be  arranged  so  that  they 
would  explode  when  any  heavy  object  floated  against 
them.  Later,  the  fuse  was  altered  so  that  the  tor- 
pedo would  explode  only  from  actual  contact  with  a 
ship  or  through  a  current  of  electricity  supplied  by 
wires  running  to  a  suitable  station  on  shore. 

The  activity  in  river  and  harbor  naval  service  during 
the  American  Civil  War  rendered  the  torpedo  a  very 
useful  means  of  defence,  and  considerable  use  was 
made  of  it  by  the  Confederate  authorities.  In  Novem- 
ber, 1862,  during  the  attempt  to  reach  the  rear  of 
Vicksburg  through  the  bayous,  the  iron-clad  gunboat 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  315 

Cairo  was  blown  up  by  torpedoes  made  of  whiskey 
demijohns.  In  the  defence  of  Mobile  Bay  devices  of 
this  kind  were  abundantly  employed,  the  Confederates 
anchoring  across  the  channel  forty-six  torpedoes  made 
of  beer-kegs  and  one  hundred  and  thirty-four  made 
of  tin,  all  fitted  with  percussion  fuses.  A  pass,  marked 
by  a  red  buoy,  was  left  between  them  for  the  use  of 
blockade-runners. 

One  of  these  crude  affairs  sank  the  monitor  Te- 
cumseh,  and  it  was  fortunate  for  the  rest  of  the  fleet 
that  they  were  so  poorly  made,  for,  as  the  ships  dashed 
through  them,  after  Farragut's  profane  but  famous 
remark,  their  percussion  primers  could  be  heard  snap- 
ping, but  not  one  exploded.  Subsequently  several 
other  vessels  and  boats  were  sunk  by  them,  although 
active  efforts  to  clear  the  channel  had  been  made. 
There  were  other  instances  of  the  use  of  torpedoes 
during  the  war,  the  most  prominent  being  the  sinking 
of  the  Patapsco  in  Charleston  harbor. 

Since  the  era  of  the  war  the  torpedo  has  made  im- 
portant progress,  both  as  the  floating  torpedo  and 
the  fixed  or  submarine  mine.  The  mine  differs  but 
little  from  the  anchored  torpedo.  It  is  intended  to 
lie  on  the  bottom  of  a  river  or  harbor,  and  is  weighted 
for  this  purpose.  Originally  these  mines  contained 
gunpowder.  Now,  in  common  with  the  anchored 
torpedoes,  they  are  charged  with  the  more  powerful 
dynamite  or  gun-cotton. 

For  harbor  defence  the  submarine  mine  is  now 
almost  exclusively  employed.  The  old  methods  of 
mechanical  ignition  have  grown,  in  great  measure, 
obsolete,  being  replaced  by  electrical  devices.  Of 
these,  the  construction  of  the  "  circuit  closer"  and  the 


3i6  THE   NATION'S  NAVY. 

"firing  box,"  with  other  details,  are  department  se- 
crets, while  the  plots  of  the  torpedo-fields  of  various 
harbors  are  kept  in  the  secret  archives  of  the  War 
Department,  not  to  be  trusted  even  to  the  engineers 
until  the  time  to  lay  the  torpedoes  arrives. 

There  are  two  general  classes  of  submarine  mines 
in  use, — the  electrical  contact  and  the  self-acting  or 
automatic.  In  the  latter  the  charge  is  ignited  on 
contact  by  the  medium  of  a  small  battery  of  galvanic 
cells.  These  mines  are  equally  dangerous  to  friendly 
and  hostile  ships,  and  they  are  used  only  in  times  of 
urgency  or  to  supplement  the  other  class.  Their  sim- 
plicity of  structure,  and  the  rapidity  with  which  they 
can  be  laid,  are  at  times  of  advantage;  but  they  are 
apt  to  lose  their  efficiency  if  long  laid,  they  cannot  be 
tested,  they  threaten  all  ships,  and  they  can  be  removed 
only  by  explosion.  For  these  reasons  they  are  likely 
to  become  obsolete. 

The  other  class  of  mines  has  two  varieties,  the  ob- 
servation mine,  which  is  fired  from  the  shore  when  a 
hostile  ship  is  seen  in  the  desired  position,  and  the 
electrical-contact  mine,  which,  when  struck  by  a  ship, 
gives  notice  to  the  operator,  who  can  explode  it  by 
pressing  a  button. 

Generally  speaking,  the  mine  consists  of  a  steel  shell 
of  comparatively  light  plating,  which  is  filled  with  a 
charge  of  high  explosive,  usually  gun-cotton,  and  con- 
tains at  its  base  some  exploding  or  detonating  device 
for  setting  it  off.  For  purposes  of  firing,  cables  are 
led  from  the  igniting  charge  to  an  observation  station, 
conveniently  located  on  shore.  The  mines  are  built 
in  a  variety  of  shapes,  some  being  cylindrical,  with 
rounded  ends,  and  others  conical,  with  bulged  sides. 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  317 

The  observation  mines  possess  considerable  advan- 
tage from  the  comparative  simplicity  of  their  construc- 
tion and  the  fact  that  when  they  are  laid  they  may  be 
adapted  to  allow  the  passage  of  friendly  vessels  while 
barring  those  of  a  hostile  power.  When  they  are 
placed  on  the  bed  of  a  river  or  harbor  they  are 
known  as  ground  mines.  In  some  countries  this  type 
is  of  the  cheapest  construction,  consisting  of  a  rough 
cast-iron  case,  with  projecting  legs  to  enable  it  to 
anchor  itself  securely  in  the  mud.  There  is  practically 
no  limit  to  the  size  of  these  mines.  Lying  deep  down 
beneath  the  surface  they  are  not  liable  to  be  laid  bare 
with  the  fall  of  the  tide,  and  they  contain  sufficient 
explosive  to  insure  that  any  ship  within  a  radius  of 
fifty  feet  will  be  destroyed. 

Observation  mines  may  be  fired  by  one  or  two  ob- 
servers. If  by  one  observer,  the  mines  are  laid  down 
in  rows,  the  lines  of  which  converge  to  the  observa- 
tion point.  All  the  lines  in  one  row  are  connected 
so  that  they  can  be  simultaneously  fired  when  the  ship 
is  passing  the  range  line.  When  the  mines  are  con- 
nected with  two  observers,  they  are  laid  according  to 
a  system  of  cross  observation,  by  which  it  is  possible 
to  fire  any  particular  mine  when  the  ship  is  above  or 
in  close  proximity  to  it.  For  this  purpose  the  "  range- 
finder"  is  employed,  theodolite  observations  being 
taken  from  two  stations  separated  by  a  considerable 
interval.  The  stations  are  connected  by  electric  wires, 
which  also  connect  them  with  the  mining  casement, 
so  that  the  firing  officer  can  be  advised  of  the  exact 
moment  to  discharge  the  mine.  Of  course,  in  times 
of  fog,  or  when  battle-smoke  obscures  the  water,  this 


318  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

method  cannot  be  employed,  and  contact  firing  be- 
comes necessary.  At  night  the  search-light  is  used. 

In  the  electrical-contact  mine  the  apparatus  is  very 
delicate  and  complicated,  and  great  skill  and  judgment 
are  needed  in  its  use.  These  mines  are  provided  with 
automatic  circuit  closers,  by  means  of  which,  on  the 
mine  being  struck  by  a  vessel,  a  current  is  sent  to  the 
observing  station,  from  which  the  operator  fires  the 
mine.  In  one  form  of  contact  mechanism  a  vertical 
pendulum  is  hung  in  such  a  position  that  when  the 
mine  is  struck  it  will  swing  over  and  close  the  circuit 
by  striking  a  contact  point.  It  will  be  noticed  that 
in  this  system  a  friendly  ship  can  be  allowed  to  pass, 
even  after  it  has  struck  the  mine,  the  operator  not 
heeding  the  signal ;  at  the  same  time  he  could  imme- 
diately control  the  mine  to  destroy  a  hostile  ship. 

The  priming  fuse  employed  is  usually  fulminate  of 
mercury.  This  fits  into  a  receptacle  holding  one 
pound  of  dynamite,  the  explosion  of  which  causes  the 
discharge  of  the  whole.  The  unit  of  arrangement  of 
a  series  of  harbor  mines  is  a  group  of  twenty-one, 
which  is  divided  into  minor  triangular  groups  ol  three. 
To  each  of  these  one  of  the  cores  of  the  cable  runs,  so 
that  at  no  time  can  less  than  three  be  discharged  from 
the  shore.  A  chart,  on  which  the  whole  is  plotted, 
lies  before  the  operator,  and  the  wire  running  to  each 
triangular  group  is  clearly  indicated. 

Any  one  of  the  mines  can  be  discharged  indepen- 
dently by  concussion  from  the  vessel,  the  touch  of  a 
ship  ringing  a  bell  in  the  mining  casement  and  break- 
ing the  circuit  for  five  seconds,  so  that  only  the  mine 
in  contact  is  discharged.  If  the  contact  is  too  light  to 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  319 

cause  an  explosion,  the  bell  warns  the  operator,  who 
by  a  touch  can  set  off  the  three  mines. 

These  mines  can  be  tested  accurately  in  all  their 
details,  and  kept  at  all  times  in  perfect  working  order. 
The  testing  never  ceases,  the  mine  telegraphing  ashore 
its  condition  and  that  of  all  its  apparatus.  Any  fault 
can  be  located  by  electricity,  delicate  apparatus  being 
employed,  in  which  the  galvanometer  is  the  most  im- 
portant element. 

The  shape  of  the  torpedo-case  for  the  buoyant  mines 
of  the  United  States  service  is  spherical,  two  hemi- 
spheres being  welded  together  at  their  flanges.  Steel 
is  the  metal  used,  it  being  made  as  thin  as  possible. 
In  deep  water — over  seven  fathoms — this  form  of  mine 
is  employed,  it  being  anchored  by  a  cable  of  such 
length  that  it  will  float  at  the  required  depth.  It  has 
the  advantage  of  lying  closer  to  the  object  of  attack 
and  not  needing  so  heavy  a  charge  of  explosive  ma- 
terial. The  ground  mine,  which  is  used  in  shallower 
waters,  is  hemispherical  in  shape,  its  flat  side  lying  on 
the  bottom.  It  needs  a  much  heavier  charge  of  ex- 
plosive. Above  it  floats  its  buoy,  an  empty  sphere, 
held  so  that  it  will  float  from  ten  to  twenty  feet  below 
the  surface  of  ebb-tide.  Telegraphic  information 
comes  to  the  operator  on  contact  with  this  float. 

Mining  naturally  leads  to  countermining.  Boat 
parties  may  be  sent  in  from  a  hostile  fleet  to  take  up 
floating  mines  or  the  contact  closers  of  ground  mines, 
or  to  cut  the  electrical  connections,  or  heavy  charges 
of  dynamite  may  be  exploded  over  a  suspected  field, 
for  the  purpose  of  setting  off  its  mines  by  concussion. 
On  the  other  hand,  a  patrol  of  launches,  armed  with 
machine-guns,  is  provided  for  defence,  while  the  firing 


320  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

stations  on  shore  are  made  bomb-proof,  and  the  ob- 
servation stations  are  established  in  as  remote  and 
concealed  situations  as  possible,  that  the  operators 
may  not  be  driven  away  or  killed  by  the  enemy's  fire. 

The  latest  and  most  terrible  example  of  the  fright- 
fully destructive  powers  of  the  submarine  mine  is  that 
of  the  sinking  of  the  Maine  in  Havana  harbor,  Feb- 
ruary 15,  1898.  Of  the  size  and  character  of  the  mine 
to  which  this  disaster  was  due  we  know  nothing,  its 
fragments  being  probably  buried  deep  in  the  mud  of 
the  harbor,  but  the  utter  wreck  it  made  of  the  battle- 
ship is  an  object-lesson  of  the  most  startling  kind  con- 
cerning the  powers  of  these  terrible  contrivances.  By 
their  aid  the  harbors  of  the  future  will  be  rendered 
practically  secure  against  the  ships  of  an  enemy,  unless 
some  means  be  invented  to  rob  them  of  their  sting. 

Harbor  defence  is,  of  course,  not  intrusted  solely 
to  the  mine.  The  battery  is  an  equally  important 
element,  a  very  difficult  one  to  overcome,  in  fact,  since 
it  can  employ  heavier  guns,  of  longer  range,  and  more 
securely  protected,  than  can  be  handled  in  any  ship. 
In  the  United  States  the  frontiers  exposed  to  attack 
are  very  largely  maritime,  and  for  defence  not  only 
ships  and  mines  must  be  provided,  but  forts  and  bat- 
teries as  well.  And  these  fortifications  are  necessarily 
of  a  character  very  different  from  the  coast  defences 
of  the  past,  when  stone  walls  were  trusted  to  keep 
out  the  heaviest  cannon-balls  that  could  be  hurled 
against  them  from  the  decks  of  ships.  The  rifled 
cannon  has  had  as  great  an  effect  upon  the  fort  as 
upon  the  ship,  the  stone  entrenchment  has  suffered 
the  fate  of  the  "  wooden  wall,"  and  iron  and  steel  are 
taking  the  place  of  masonry  in  places  where  earth, 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  321 

in  sufficient  thickness,  cannot  be  employed.  Fort 
Sumter,  one  of  the  strong  masonry  defences  of  the 
Civil  War  period,  was  quickly  battered  into  a  heap 
of  ruins  by  Confederate  fire  from  the  shore.  And  in 
1863  a  group  of  five  monitors  bombarded  it  with  like 
effect,  silencing  the  fort  and  shattering  its  walls  in  a 
few  hours. 

This  was  the  work  of  smooth-bore  guns.  With 
modern  rifled  cannon  such  a  fort  would  have  but  a 
brief  span  of  existence.  Either  earth  or  steel  must 
now  be  depended  upon.  Former  forts  were  built  like 
former  line-of-battle  ships,  with  their  several  rows  of 
port-holes  for  broadside  fire.  The  guns  were  mounted 
in  casements  of  masonry  built  tier  over  tier,  with  the 
design  of  pouring  a  crushing  weight  of  metal  upon 
any  attacking  fleet.  This  system  has  been  discarded. 
It  would  be  worse  than  useless  in  dealing  with  modern 
artillery.  In  1886  a  board  of  naval  engineers  recom- 
mended for  the  sea-coast  defence  of  the  United  States 
a  system  of  steel-plated  turrets,  armored  casements, 
barbette  batteries,  mortar  and  floating  batteries,  and 
submarine  mines,  and  our  recent  coast  fortifications 
have  been  built  on  the  lines  of  this  recommendation. 

The  walls  of  a  fort  present  a  far  easier  problem  for 
armored  defence  than  the  sides  of  a  ship.  The  ques- 
tion of  buoyancy  does  not  need  to  be  considered,  and 
it  is  possible  to  make  the  armor  of  quite  impenetrable 
thickness.  At  first  armor-plates  like  those  used  on 
ships  were  placed  on  the  walls  of  forts,  but  these  were 
afterwards  replaced  by  chilled  iron  armor  of  greater 
weight  than  any  ship  could  carry.  In  many  instances 
the  armored  turret  was  employed,  the  guns  being 
stationary,  the  turret  revolving,  so  that  the  projectiles 

21 


322  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

could  be  hurled  in  any  direction.  These  turrets, 
which,  like  the  parapets,  are  covered  with  thick  armor 
of  chilled  iron,  were  at  first  made  like  those  used  on 
ships,  but  afterwards  the  cylindrical  form,  with  flat  or 
arched  top,  was  abandoned,  and  the  Gruson  cupola 
turret  adopted,  a  form  in  which  no  flat  surface  was 
shown.  This  turret  is  like  the  section  of  a  sphere, 
rounding  upward  in  all  directions,  so  as  to  deflect  up- 
ward any  projectile  that  may  strike  its  surface. 

As  only  long  cannon  for  direct  fire  can  be  employed 
in  turrets  of  this  kind,  cupolas  of  a  different  kind  were 
provided  for  mortars  and  howitzers.  For  the  shorter 
mortars  the  cupola  is  contracted  to  a  sphere  enclosing 
the  mortar.  The  next  step  in  the  evolution  of  the 
turret  was  the  introduction  of  disappearing  turrets, 
which  gave  greater  safety  to  the  gunners  than  those 
that  simply  revolved  to  turn  their  port-holes  away 
from  an  enemy.  These  were  intended  for  small  or 
medium-sized  guns,  but  subsequently  were  built  in 
France  for  heavier  guns.  In  these  the  cylindrical 
moving  part  has  a  sinking  as  well  as  a  revolving 
motion,  and  can  be  lowered  until  its  arched  top  is  on 
a  level  with  the  glacis,  allowing  the  guns  to  be  loaded 
without  danger  from  the  enemy. 

In  many  cases  overhead  covering  to  the  fort  is  not 
deemed  necessary,  and  in  these  instances  the  barbette 
turret  is  adopted,  the  guns  being  lifted  above  a  sta- 
tionary ring  of  armor,  over  which  they  fire.  In  this 
case  the  gunners  are  protected  by  a  shield  of  metal 
connected  with  the  carriage.  In  other  cases  the  dis- 
appearing carriage  is  employed.  In  this  instance  the 
gun,  when  loaded,  is  raised  by  a  pneumatic  or  other 
device,  appears  at  an  opening  in  the  roof,  which  is 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  323 

kept  closed  until  the  proper  time,  and  delivers  its  fire. 
The  recoil  of  the  gun  carries  it  back  automatically  to 
the  protected  position,  for  reloading.  Armored  fort- 
resses, of  some  of  the  kinds  mentioned,  now  exist  on 
the  coasts  of  all  civilized  maritime  countries,  the 
chilled  iron  turrets  being  preferred  in  some  European 
countries,  the  disappearing  carriage  in  the  United 
States  and  England. 

The  development  of  a  satisfactory  disappearing 
carriage  constitutes  a  problem  that  has  given  no  little 
trouble  to  engineers.  One  of  these  was  proposed  as 
long  ago  as  1775,  by  Corneille  Redeichkeit.  It  was 
a  cumbrous  system,  depending  on  cords  and  counter- 
weights, and  quite  likely  to  get  out  of  order,  and  was 
soon  abandoned.  Other  inventors  employed  eccen- 
tric trucks  and  axle-trees,  but  in  this  way  could  not 
raise  the  gun  far  enough  above  the  loading  position. 
Then  a  twin-gun  system  was  proposed,  two  guns  being 
joined  by  ropes,  so  that  as  one  sank  to  the  loading  the 
other  was  lifted  to  the  firing  position.  General  Chas- 
seloup  worked  for  thirteen  years  upon  this  concep- 
tion, but  failed  to  make  it  act  satisfactorily.  The 
Moncrieff  counterweight  carriage  was  the  next  in- 
troduced. In  this  the  recoil,  while  forcing  the  gun 
downward,  lifts  a  heavy  counterweight.  When  ready 
to  fire  this  is  set  free,  and  its  weight  raises  the  gun 
to  the  firing  position.  The  objection  to  this  system 
is  the  great  weight  of  the  accessories.  The  Moncrieff 
carriage,  however,  has  been  widely  adopted  in  Great 
Britain.  The  systems  invented  in  this  country,  by 
Eads,  Bufrmgton-Crozier,  and  others,  are  mostly  based 
on  the  Moncrieff  idea  of  a  counterweight. 

Of  American  inventions,  one  of  the  most  recent, 


324  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

the  Gordon  disappearing  carriage,  was  subjected  to 
an  official  test  in  1894.  Ten  shots  an  hour  were  called 
for  by  contract,  but  it  proved  capable  of  delivering 
thirty-two  shots  in  that  time.  When  in  firing  posi- 
tion the  gun  is  raised  twenty  feet  above  the  ground. 
It  is  dropped  eight  feet  to  load,  the  recoil  being  taken 
up  partly  by  air  pressure,  partly  by  counterweights. 

The  Buffington-Crozier  carriage,  which  has  been 
adopted  by  the  United  States  government  as  the  stand- 
ard type  for  coast-defence  fortifications,  is  somewhat 
lighter  than  the  Gordon  and  has  stood  very  severe 
tests.  In  this  also  a  counterweight  is  used,  which 
takes  up  about  one-third  of  the  recoil,  the  remainder 
being  taken  up  by  two  hydraulic  cylinders.  The 
counterweight  for  an  8-inch  breech-loading  rifle 
weighs  about  thirty-two  thousand  pounds.  The  gun 
is  carried  upon  supporting  levers,  pivoted  upon  a 
strong  steel  axle,  which  permit  an  easy  movement  of 
ascent  and  descent.  The  gun  is  aimed  while  lowered, 
and  during  the  few  seconds  of  its  elevation  to  fire 
would  be  a  very  difficult  object  to  hit.  The  mechanism 
acts  with  great  rapidity,  as  many  as  ten  shots  having 
been  fired  in  a  little  over  twelve  minutes  from  an  8- 
inch  gun. 

This  device  gives  almost  complete  protection  to  the 
guns  of  a  land  fortification.  A  gun  in  an  ordinary 
barbette  offers  an  inviting  object  for  an  enemy's  fire, 
and  if  hit  might  be  dismounted  and  the  gunners  dis- 
abled or  killed.  The  disappearing  gun  is  exposed 
only  at  the  instant  of  firing,  and  its  gunners  not  at 
all,  so  that  the  risk  is  reduced  to  almost  nothing.  A 
fort  provided  with  guns  of  this  character  and  properly 
armored  can  defy  the  fire  of  an  attacking  fleet,  while 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  325 

the  latter  would  be  a  fair  target  for  its  rapidly  rising 
and  sinking  guns. 

Upon  sea-fronts  the  works  of  defence  consist  gen- 
erally of  isolated  forts,  separated  by  considerable  in- 
tervals, depending  upon  the  conditions  of  the  channel. 
Smaller  batteries  may  occupy  positions  between.  At 
the  entrance  to  the  bay  of  New  York,  on  Sandy  Hook, 
are  earthworks  provided  with  disappearing  guns,  and 
similar  defences  have  been  provided  at  other  points 
commanding  the  channel.  These  batteries  are  pro- 
vided with  10-  and  1 2-inch  rifled  cannon,  a  number 
of  12-inch  steel  mortars,  and  some  dynamite  guns. 
Across  Romer  Shoal  it  is  proposed  to  erect  four  steel 
turrets,  set  on  steel  piling  in  the  most  substantial  man- 
ner, masonry  protecting  the  metal  from  corrosion  by 
sea-water.  The  turrets  will  be  circular  and  revolving, 
heavily  plated,  and  each  carrying  two  guns  of  the 
largest  caliber,  while  a  number  of  6-inch  and  8-inch 
rapid-fire  guns  will  also  be  provided.  The  magazines, 
machinery,  and  quarters  for  the  men  will  be  located 
below  water-level,  behind  a  thick  bank  of  sand.  The 
guns  of  these  turrets  will  be  able  to  sweep  all  ap- 
proaches to  New  York,  and  it  would  be  very  unsafe 
for  any  hostile  fleet  to  come  within  their  range. 

The  aim  from  a  land  battery  is  much  surer  than  from 
a  ship,  and  any  such  fleet  would  stand  serious  risk  of 
injury  in  approaching  fortifications  of  this  character. 
While  a  1 3-inch  gun  is  the  largest  that  can  practi- 
cally be  used  in  a  ship,  some  of  our  land  forts  carry 
1 6-inch  guns,  of  one  hundred  and  forty  tons  weight. 
The  charge  of  these  guns  weighs  one  thousand  and 
sixty,  their  projectiles  two  thousand  three  hundred  and 
seventy  pounds.  Even  when  miles  away,  the  most 


326  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

powerful  ship  would  be  in  danger  of  this  ton  and  more 
of  steel  being  plunged  against  its  side  or  upon  its  deck, 
with  a  penetrating  force  that  few  armor-plates  could 
resist.  Even  the  smaller  12-inch  guns,  of  the  class 
used  in  our  forts,  are  capable  of  sending,  near  the 
muzzle,  their  looo-pound  steel  projectile  through 
thirty-six  inches  of  wrought  iron,  and  more  than  half 
that  thickness  of  steel. 

Something  may  be  said  in  conclusion  regarding  the 
cost  of  equipping  a  modern  fort  and  battle-ship  with 
guns  and  ammunition.  Secretary  Long  estimated 
that  each  of  the  lo-inch  guns  sunk  with  the  Maine 
had  cost  the  government  $43,000.  The  12-inch  gun 
is  worth  perhaps  $10,000  more,  and  the  i6-inch  gun, 
which  class  has  been  very  sparsely  made,  is  worth  not 
less  than  $175,000.  And  these  guns  are  not  made  for 
all  time.  It  is  said  that  after  three  hundred  shots  they 
must  be  sent  back  to  the  factory  to  rebuild,  and  that 
double  this  number  of  shots  would  render  them  useless. 
If  these  facts  be  taken  in  connection  with  the  cost  of 
the  great  steel  shell  and  heavy  powder  charge  con- 
sumed in  each  explosion  and  the  $400  per  ton  cost  of 
the  armor-plate,  it  will  be  seen  that  naval  warfare  and 
coast  defence,  as  now  conducted,  need  a  very  heavy 
purse  or  a  very  short  war. 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  327 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE   NAVIES    OF  THE   NATIONS. 

WE  cannot  justly  compare  the  fleet  of  the  United 
States  with  those  of  the  powerful  maritime  nations  of 
Europe.  Those  of  Great  Britain  and  France  have 
been  forty  years  in  building,  and  those  of  some  other 
nations  nearly  as  long,  while  almost  the  first  step 
towards  our  existing  fleet  was  taken  but  fifteen  years 
ago,  and  ten  years  ago  we  possessed  only  a  few 
second-rate  cruisers  of  modern  type.  Since  that 
period  highly  encouraging  progress  has  been  made, 
and  this  country  is  likely  within  the  near  future  to 
take  rank  with  the  chief  naval  powers  of  the  world. 
With  this  preliminary  statement  we  propose  to  give  in 
brief  the  naval  strength  of  the  maritime  nations,  as  a 
means  of  estimating  their  relative  position  in  regard 
to  sea-power  at  the  present  day. 

At  a  low  level  among  the  navies  of  the  larger  na- 
tions stands  that  of  Spain.  But  at  this  present  writing 
it  occupies  the  most  prominent  position  in  the  world's 
eye,  with  the  exception  of  the  navy  of  the  United 
States.  We  shall  begin,  therefore,  with  a  succinct  roll- 
call  of  the  Spanish  ships  of  war.  In  the  war  with  the 
United  States  the  navy  of  Spain  became  divided  up 
into  three  fleets,  that  of  the  Philippine  Islands,  that  of 
the  West  Indies,  and  that  of  Cadiz.  The  first  of  these 
no  longer  exists,  and  we  can  but  tell  what  it  was,  not 


328  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

what  it  is.    The  guns  of  Admiral  Dewey's  fleet  have 
given  it  a  resting-place  on  the  bottom  of  Manila  Bay. 

The  Reina  Cristina,  Admiral  Montojo's  flag-ship, 
was  a  single-screw  cruiser  of  3090  tons  displacement, 
and  a  length  of  two  hundred  and  eighty  feet,  her  ar- 
mament consisting  of  nineteen  slow-  and  rapid-fire 
guns,  two  machine-guns,  and  five  torpedo-tubes.  The 
Castilla  was  a  cruiser  of  3341  tons  displacement,  armed 
with  several  5.9-inch  and  47-inch  Krupp  guns  and  a 
secondary  battery.  There  were  four  other  small 
cruisers, — the  Don  Antonio  de  Ulloa,  of  1152  tons,  the 
Isla  de  Cuba,  1040  tons,  the  Velasco,  and  the  Isla  de 
Luzon,  with  lighter  armament  than  the  Reina  Cristina 
and  the  Castilla.  The  gunboats  included  the  General 
Lezo,  the  Marques  del  Duero,  and  the  El  Correo, 
each  of  about  500  tons,  and  armed  with  47-inch  rifles 
and  machine-guns.  The  Isla  de  Mindanao  was  a  trans- 
port of  4195  tons. 

Admiral  Cervera's  fleet,  at  first  known  as  the  Cape 
Verde  and  later  as  the  West  India  Squadron,  had  for 
flag-ship  the  armored  cruiser  Cristobal  Colon,  of  6840 
tons  displacement  and  three  hundred  and  twenty-eight 
feet  in  length.  Her  armor  consists  of  a  complete  belt 
of  6-inch  nickel  steel,  and  a  protected  deck  from  two 
to  eight  inches  thick.  She  has  two  barbettes,  pro- 
tected by  6-inch  armor,  and  an  armament  of  two  9.8- 
inch,  ten  6-inch,  and  six  47-inch  guns,  with  a  power- 
ful secondary  armament  of  6-  and  I -pounders  and 
machine-guns.  Her  speed  is  twenty  knots. 

This  fleet  contains  three  other  armored  cruisers, — 
the  Vizcaya,  of  6890  tons,  20.2  knots  speed,  10-  to  12- 
inch  armor,  and  a  powerful  armament,  including  two 
n-inch  and  ten  5.5-inch  guns,  and  numerous  smaller 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  329 

guns;  the  Almirante  Oquendo,  a  double-turreted  steel 
ship  similar  in  tonnage,  armor,  and  armament  to  the 
Vizcaya;  and  the  Infanta  Maria  Teresa,  also  identical 
in  all  particulars  with  the  Vizcaya.  The  fleet  also  em- 
braces the  protected  cruiser  Reina  Mercedes  and  three 
torpedo-boat  destroyers,  the  Terror,  the  Furor,  and 
the  Pluton,  steel  craft  of  about  320  tons  displacement 
and  twenty-eight  knots  speed,  each  carrying  two  14-- 
inch torpedo-tubes  and  armed  with  a  number  of  rapid- 
fire  guns. 

The  make-up  of  the  Cadiz  fleet,  under  Admiral 
Camara,  is  somewhat  problematical.  It  embraces  the 
first-class  battle-ship  Pelayo,  of  9900  tons  displace- 
ment, I7|-inch  armor-belt,  16  knots  speed,  two  \2.\- 
inch  and  two  n-inch  guns,  with  a  number  of  large 
rapid-fire  guns;  and  the  Numancia  and  Vitoria, 
second-class  battle-ships,  of  about  7300  tons.  Its  ar- 
mored cruisers  comprise  the  Carlos  V.  and  the  Car- 
dinal Cisneros,  of  7000  tons,  and  carrying  two  1 1 -inch 
guns.  The  Alfonso  XIII.,  a  protected  cruiser,  of  5000 
tons,  is  armed  with  four  7.8-inch  and  six  4.7-inch  guns. 
There  are  a  number  of  other  cruisers,  principally  in 
an  unfinished  state,  a  considerable  number  of  gun- 
boats and  torpedo-boats,  and  several  auxiliary  vessels. 

First  among  the  naval  fleets  of  the  world  stands 
that  of  Great  Britain,  embracing  no  less  than  twenty- 
nine  first-class  and  twenty-four  second-class  battle- 
ships, seventeen  coast-defence  vessels,  eighteen  ar- 
mored, and  one  hundred  and  twenty-six  unarmored 
cruisers.  In  addition  there  are  sixty-two  gunboats 
and  nearly  three  hundred  torpedo-boats  and  de- 
stroyers. Many  of  these  vessels  are  practically  obso- 
lete, having  been  built  in  the  infancy  of  ironclads,  and 


330  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

provided  with  wrought-iron  armor.  The  first-class 
battle-ships,  however,  are  mainly  of  recent  date  and 
carry  compound  armor  or  Harveyized  steel  ranging 
in  thickness  from  six  to  twenty  inches,  their  protective 
decks  being  from  2.\-  to  4-inch  thickness.  Of  these 
ships,  twenty-five  are  of  12,000  tons  or  over,  of  which 
seventeen  range  over  14,000  tons.  Their  speed  aver- 
ages from  about  seventeen  to  eighteen  and  three- 
quarters  knots  and  their  coal  endurance  from  seven 
thousand  to  eight  thousand  miles.  The  Centurion  has 
an  endurance  of  10,000  and  the  Renown  of  12,000 
miles.  Their  main  armament  comprises  guns  of  12- 
to  13^-inch  bore.  The  second-  and  third-class  battle- 
ships are,  as  a  rule,  armed  with  muzzle-loaders,  these 
being  ships  built  at  a  date  before  the  advantage  of  the 
breech-loading  principle  had  made  itself  apparent  to 
the  British  official  conception,  though  other  nations 
had  long  before  adopted  it. 

France  stands  second  as  a  naval  power,  her  fleet 
embracing  fifteen  first-class  and  nine  second-class 
battle-ships,  twenty-four  coast-defence  vessels,  thir- 
teen armored,  and  sixty-one  unarmored  cruisers.  Of 
gunboats  she  possesses  forty-nine,  and  of  torpedo- 
boats  and  destroyers  over  two  hundred  and  sixty. 
Her  battle-ships  range  below  those  of  Great  Britain 
and  resemble  those  of  the  United  States  in  size,  the 
largest  being  the  Formidable,  of  12,165  tons-  We 
need  scarcely  repeat  what  has  been  already  said,  that 
the  larger  displacement  of  the  British  battle-ships  is 
no  indication  of  greater  strength,  its  principal  advan- 
tage being  in  superior  coal-carrying  capacity.  The 
armor  of  the  French  battle-ships  ranges  from  14-  to 
2iJ-inch  steel  in  its  thickest  regions,  several  ships 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  331 

having  side  armor  of  the  latter  thickness.  The  larger 
guns  vary  from  12-  to  134-inch.  The  speed  of  these 
vessels  varies  from  thirteen  and  a  quarter  to  eighteen 
knots. 

Next  on  the  list  in  number  of  first-class  battle-ships 
stands  Russia,  with  fourteen  vessels  of  this  class  and 
four  of  lower  class.  She  has  in  addition  twenty-eight 
coast-defence  vessels,  fourteen  armored,  three  pro- 
tected, and  twenty  unprotected  cruisers.  Her  gun- 
boats number  fourteen,  and  her  torpedo-boats  and  de- 
stroyers two  hundred  and  thirty.  Her  first-class 
battle-ships  vary  from  9476  to  12,674  tons,  with  speeds 
ranging  from  fifteen  to  seventeen  and  a  half  knots,  and 
side  armor  of  from  9-  to  1 6-inch  steel, — 1 8-inch  in  one 
instance.  Her  largest  guns  are  of  1 2-inch  aperture, 
several  of  her  ships  carrying  four  1 2-inch  and  eight 
8-inch  guns. 

Germany  has  a  fleet  of  six  first-class  and  ten  second- 
class  battle-ships,  with  nineteen  third-class  or  coast- 
defence  vessels,  seven  armored  and  nineteen  protected 
and  unprotected  cruisers,  three  gunboats,  and  nearly 
two  hundred  torpedo-boats  and  destroyers.  Her  first- 
class  battle-ships  range  from  10,100  to  11,000  tons, 
and  carry  from  12-  to  i5J-inch  steel  armor.  Their 
speed  ranges  from  fifteen  to  eighteen  knots  per  hour. 
Their  main  armament,  in  most  instances,  comprises 
six  1 1 -inch  slow-fire  and  six  4.1 -inch  rapid-fire  guns. 

Italy  is  credited  with  eight  first-class  battle-ships 
and  two  of  second-class,  with  seven  sea-going  coast- 
defence  vessels.  Her  armored  cruisers  are  eight  in 
number,  her  protected  cruisers  twenty-three.  She  is 
credited  with  only  two  small  gunboats,  and  with  over 
two  hundred  torpedo-boats  and  destroyers.  Several 


332  THE   NATION'S   NAVY. 

of  her  battle-ships  are  of  large  displacement,  two 
reaching  14,400  tons.  The  larger  have  protective 
armor  of  16-  to  2iJ-inch  steel,  their  speed  ranging 
from  15  to  20.2  knots. 

The  fleet  of  Austria  includes  ten  second-class  battle- 
ships, seven  coast-defence  vessels,  two  armored  and 
ten  unarmored  cruisers,  eight  gunboats,  and  eighty- 
seven  torpedo-boats  and  destroyers.  Her  battle-ships 
range  from  5510  to  7390  tons  displacement,  with  side 
armor  of  from  6-  to  14-inch  steel.  Their  speed  varies 
from  13  to  17.2  knots. 

The  only  other  European  nations  possessed  of  bat- 
tle-ships are  Turkey,  which  has  one  of  first-class  and 
eight  of  second-class  size,  and  the  Netherlands,  with 
three  second-class  battle-ships.  Denmark  has  twenty- 
six  sea-going  coast-defence  vessels,  and  the  Nether- 
lands twenty-four  coast-defence  ships,  mainly  non- 
sea-going.  Each  of  these  countries  possesses  a 
moderate  number  of  cruisers. 

Of  the  South  American  and  Asiatic  nations  Japan 
stands  first,  with  five  first-class  and  two  second-class 
battle-ships,  six  coast-defence  vessels,  four  armored, 
and  twenty-two  unarmored  cruisers.  Her  gunboats 
are  nine  in  number,  torpedo-boats  one  hundred  and 
forty-seven.  China's  fleet  at  present,  since  her  losses 
to  Japan,  includes  seventeen  unarmored  cruisers,  six- 
teen gunboats,  and  forty-six  torpedo-boats.  Of  the 
South  American  nations,  Brazil  has  two  second-class 
battle-ships  and  ten  coast-defence  ships,  Chili  two  of 
the  former  and  one  of  the  latter,  and  Argentina  one  of 
the  former  and  four  of  the  latter.  They  have,  besides, 
small  fleets  of  cruisers  and  torpedo-boats. 

This  review  may  fitly  conclude  with  a  condensed 


THE   NATION'S   NAVY.  333 

statement  of  the  naval  force  of  the  United  States,  by 
way  of  comparison.  This  includes  (built  and  author- 
ized) twelve  first-class  and  one  second-class  battle- 
ships, two  armored,  fifteen  protected,  and  three  un- 
protected cruisers,  seventeen  single-turreted  and  six 
double-turreted  monitors  or  coast-defence  vessels,  six- 
teen gunboats  built  and  a  number  converted,  and 
twenty-three  torpedo-boats  under  contract  before 
1898,  with  a  larger  number  authorized  in  that  year. 

As  regards  speed,  the  battle-ships  of  the  United 
States  stand  at  a  somewhat  low  level,  many  of  those 
abroad  being  two  or  more  knots  faster.  This  lack  of 
speed,  however,  is  made  up  by  other  desirable  quali- 
ties, and  if  we  accept  the  dictum,  already  quoted,  that 
"  a  battle-ship  is  made  to  fight,  not  to  run,"  our  ships 
are  strikingly  well  fitted  for  this  primary  duty.  It  is 
to  cruisers  that  the  quality  of  speed  most  properly  be- 
longs, and  of  these  our  navy  possesses  the  two  fastest 
upon  the  face  of  the  deep,  the  nearest  approach  to  the 
Columbia  and  the  Minneapolis  being  in  a  few  22-knot 
British  cruisers.  In  recent  years  great  attention  has 
been  given  to  the  building  of  torpedo-boats,  a  field  of 
naval  evolution  into  which  the  United  States  has  just 
actively  entered.  Whether  the  activity  of  the  nations 
in  this  line  is  not  misdirected  is  open  to  question.  So 
far  the  torpedo-boat  has  threatened  far  more  than  it 
has  performed,  and  its  service  promises  in  the  future 
to  become  so  dangerous  to  its  crew  and  ineffective  in 
its  results  that  only  men  to  whom  life  is  no  object  will 
be  likely  to  engage  in  it. 

THE   END. 


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